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By SUNITA RAPPAI
 

Lib Dem councillor Margaret Little
Back to the job she loves for battling Margaret

Lib Dem stalwart returns to fray after cancer and hip operation

SITTING in her Hampstead living room as she recovers from a hip operation, Margaret Little is working her way through a hefty stack of Town Hall papers.
At the age of 77, the Lib Dem councillor, who was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, has decided to finally stand down at the Town Hall elections next month, after a 12-year stint representing Hampstead ward.
But despite battles with her health – she has been relying on crutches since the hip operation as well as having regular chemotherapy sessions – she is determined to keep on working.
She said: “I was sitting in the hospital room after my operation surrounded by council papers. I have been told I should be able to go back to council meetings next week so I have a lot to catch up on.”
The former teacher, who has lived in Hampstead since 1947, was first elected to the Town Hall in 1994 after becoming politically active following divorce from her banker husband.
She said: “My husband was in the City so I was rather stuck with being a conservative because of the social links. But when the SDP started in the 1980s, I was divorced and the politics of it just suited me very well.
“I suppose as a Hampstead teacher I am the archetypal Lib Dem member. It’s about a particular emphasis on liberty and egalitarianism and inclusion, which I have always believed in.”
As well as sitting on the planning committee at the Town Hall, Cllr Little also took a special interest in education issues.
She is a governor at Maria Fidelis School in Somers Town and a trustee of Hampstead Wells and Campden Trust.
She said: “The best thing about being a councillor is being thanked by constituents for helping them. The worst is not having enough time for a lot of things I might want or need to do.
“The Town Hall drives you mad at times but luckily we are a nice councillor group so we can ring each other and grumble if we have to. There are very seldom disagreements on the Lib Dem group.
“Being re-elected at the last election in 2002 with a very high personal vote was terrific. It was a wonderful compliment that people were voting for me and the work I had done.”
While she plays down her illness – she says she will continue to be involved with the Lib Dems for as long as she can – Cllr Little admitted that worries about her health had played a role in her decision to retire.
She said: “I don’t know how well I am going to be in the future. I have had treatment and then improved and now I am in remission.
“But it might be that I am not able to do my job as a councillor and it’s important that I do my job well and I can go to meetings.
“If you take the job on of being a councillor, you have a responsibility to do it well.”
She added: “Also, I am getting older and the public appreciates seeing young energetic faces. There’s a whole crop of young ones out there that are just extraordinary.”
 
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