Ann Metcalfe - She will be greatly missed

Councillor Ann Metcalfe (left) and local volunteer Val Johnston pictured in 2012 after collecting more than 21 sacks of rubbish from unofficial car parks near reservoirs in Norden

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Ann was a close personal friend and someone who instinctively inspired trust and confidence. On meeting her for the first time, I saw a rather brusque, confident countrywoman who seemed more comfortable with her horses than with people. How wrong I was!

We shared coffee and Jaffa Cakes many times in her kitchen at Red Lumb with her dogs and grandchildren running amok. I am an ex-trade union convenor and she was a Tory councillor so we made an unlikely pairing but one of Ann's strengths was to take people as she found them. Although I am a reporter, she never leaked stories to me and never ratted on council colleagues whatever party they came from.

She told me that she regarded herself firstly as a community activist rather than as a councillor and member of a political party. She got into politics after becoming heavily involved in the protest about building the Scout Moor wind farm a few years ago. This had taken a great personal toll upon her in time, energy and financial cost.

Anyone who doubted her fire, her passion and her commitment to her beloved Norden has only to recall the BBC 'Countyfile' programme two years ago when she clearly struggled with her emotions to tell the interviewer of the damage that these schemes had on the countryside and the effect they had on local communities.

Ann was a very down-to-earth person with an earthy sense of humour and made an excellent dinner companion. She attended many curry nights organised by members of the old Rochdale Online forums.

As a former nurse I am used to seeing people die and cope with its aftermath but saddest of all to me is to see people die whilst the zest and passion for life is still burning bright within them. This was certainly true of Ann.

Rochdale has lost one of its finest citizens and many of us have lost a good and loyal friend and a much-loved family member. Somehow I feel that she is saddling up her horse somewhere in the hereafter, preparing to do what she enjoyed most; a day's hacking over the brideleways and peat-bogs.

She will be greatly missed by all of us who knew her.