The end of the road

But now the beard, big glasses and even bigger smile of Alwyn Davies, former county council leader, charity fund-raiser, chartered surveyor and all-round finger on the pulse of the area, are taking a back seat.

The man who brought Worcester the Round Table bonfire on Pitchcroft, a third Rotary club, more homes and better roads is retiring from public life to take things a bit easier.

He’s 73 and although he admits he would love to stay on to see the final piece of Worcester’s ring road completed – the controversial stretch between Crown East and Claines – he knows he’d probably have to beat Methuselah to do that and so figures now the time is right to step down.

When deputy leader of Worcestershire County Council, Mr Davies was also cabinet member for, among other things, transport. “That covered eight per cent of the budget, but 80 per cent of the complaints,” he said.

“Nothing brings more complaints than potholes in the roads. The phrase will stick in my mind forever.”

He was born near Exeter in Devon and turned up in Worcestershire in 1965 when he took a job with estate agents G Herbert Banks.

Setting up home at Lower Broadheath with his new wife Sue, a nurse at Ronkswood Hospital, Mr Davies was soon involved in the social and business whirl of Round Table, while Sue joined Ladies Circle.

It wasn’t long before Worcester Round Table found a job for its new recruit and he was put in charge of running its first bonfire on Pitchcroft.

Mr Davies said: “We built it on the day and let off our own fireworks.I can always remember the shouts of ‘Three Rockets’ and ‘Four Mortars’ as we lit up in a pre-arranged order.It was that amateur. Today, of course, it’s all highly professional.

“We invited Peter Walker, Worcester’s MP, along to light the bonfire and it was almost the end of him. We’d filled the middle with straw and soaked it with petrol.

“When Peter lit the fuse there was this almighty ‘whoosh’ as it went up.It startled all of us, but he was very good about it, although his political career could have stopped right there.

“About 2,500 people turned up and we raised £250, enough to pay for a Guide Dog for the Blind.

Now the event attracts about 8,000 each year and raises £10,000.”

MrDavies also served as chairman of Round Table Area 23, a huge district with 40 Round Tables to visit, and the natural progression for any young businessman was then into Rotary.

“But the two clubs in Worcester both met at lunchtimes and I was too busy at work,” he explained.

“I said I would be interested if there was an evening club and so a group of us met at the Severn Bar in the Star Hotel to see about setting one up. We called it Worcester Severn Rotary Club, but that wasn’t the original choice, which had been Sabrina Rotary Club, after the river.

“Then someone pointed out the name Sabrina had rather different connotations in those days, when it was more readily associated with a buxom, blonde film star and our wives might have been wondering exactly where we had been.”

However, it wasn’t a busty blonde that set Alwyn Davies on his next life path, but one of the county council’s elder statesmen.

Conservative Ron Carrington was retiring as the representative for Hallow ward and Mr Davies was asked to stand in his place at the 1993 elections. “Until then I hadn’t taken much notice of local politics,” he said. “Did I vote when I reached 18? I really can’t remember. But when they approached me to stand for the council,I took a good look at the policies and came to the conclusion my views were more naturally aligned to the Conservatives.”

Despite the new councillor winning the seat, the Tories lost power and Mr Davies spent the first eight years in opposition.

When they did regain control, he was appointed deputy leader of Worcestershire County Council, which had adopted a five-member cabinet system.

Alwyn Davies took on the transport, strategic planning and economic development brief, as well as being a member of West Mercia Police Authority.In 2007, he served as year as council vice chairman before his year as council chairman in 2008 and latterly chairman of the planning committee.

“I have been lucky in my 20 years on the council,” he said, “because I have been at the heart of decision-making.”

What then for the future? “I would like to see more home building because that is important for the economic growth of the county and I would have liked to have seen the by-pass completed around Worcester, which is really essential to solve the area’s traffic problems.

“Back in 1993 there were four options for a route between Crown East and the Northern Link road at Hawford and while you could have got most through the Broadheath and Hallow areas, they all hit problems over the river crossing and at Bevere.

“And that’s pretty much how it’s been ever since. The cost of completing this final stretch of the ring road would now be about £100 million and that is unlikely to be achieved without considerable support from private sector house builders.

“Then you have the question of where you going to build these homes. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem a solution that suits everybody.”

However, it’s not a problem that’ll worry him too much in retirement. “I will miss the council a bit,” he admitted.

“But not for too long, as my wife has ideas for my future wellbeing.” Sadly, these don’t involve driving the Mercedes over a new bridge north of Worcester any time soon.