CIVIC leaders joined family and friends yesterday to pay their last respects to a prominent councillor who gave decades of public service.

James "Jim" Mackintosh died, aged 81, after a short illness in Dryburn Park Nursing Home, alongside the University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham City, on Sunday.

The Scots-born wartime Royal Marine settled in Durham after he married a local girl, Rita, whom he met at the Chatham naval base, in Kent.

He went on to work for 30 years at what became the Thorn EMI factory, in Spennymoor, County Durham, and held prominent positions in the MSF union.

A long-standing Labour stalwart, he was elected to Durham city and county councils in 1973.

He went on to give a joint total of 46 years' service to the two authorities for the Gilesgate ward, and achieved the rare distinction of being Durham City Mayor, in 1976-1977, and county council chairman, from 1993 to 1995.

On standing down from both authorities, in 1991 and 2001, he was made honorary alderman of the councils.

His funeral took place at St Cuthbert's CE Church in North Road, Durham, yesterday.

To mark the long years he spent on the county council, the hearse and the rest of the funeral cortege briefly stopped at County Hall en-route to the nearby church.

The service was taken by the Reverend Jon Bell, with eulogies and readings by Mr Mackintosh's sons Malcolm and Jeffrey, and daughter-in-law Pauline, who read a poem written for the occasion.

It was followed by cremation, and a reception at County Hall.