A MEMORIAL bench for the former Westbury Town Councillor, Mike Kettlety and his wife Pam, was unveiled at Vivash Park earlier this month.
Friends of Pam and Mike set up a crowdfunding page to raise money so a memorial bench could be installed in Vivash Park, an area of the town that Mike, who served on the town council for six years, was heavily involved with before his death as he helped negotiate the transfer of the land from Wiltshire Council to the town council.
Friends and family gathered together in the park to unveil the bench and deputy mayor cllr Jane Russ said a few words about the couple who had dedicated a large part of their lives to the local community.
“Mike is the reason I am standing here today as he was instrumental in getting me to stand for town council and he was the most wonderful and hard-working councillor,” she said. “At the centre of his being was this sense that he was always working for the good of the town and he was forever working for the least advantaged.
“He had the most wonderful sense of humour and he made even the dullest meeting bearable! He had a fabulous insight into the workings of the state and his past experience as a union negotiator was invaluable in his time at the council. He was a genuinely lovely man and not a single council meeting goes by where I don’t miss him.
“Pam was wonderful, and her life was founded on the same sort of ethos as Mike – she always looked to do the best for Westbury. She initially stood to be a Westbury town councillor and actually ended up as a councillor in North Bradley – our loss was their gain as she always worked her hardest.”
Money left over from the crowdfunding page totalled £227.25 and this money was donated to a cause close to Pam’s heart – the Westbury food bank run by the Westbury Area Network.
