AN ALDERMAN and former mayor of Stockton has died at the age of 82.

Jim Tatchell served on three councils and was a chairman of the North Tees Health Authority.

He was a founding member of the Billingham International Folklore Festival, and as a leading member of the Billingham Urban District Council helped create the town's Forum Theatre.

Mr Thatchell, a former senior electrical engineer with ICI, was chairman of leisure on Teesside Borough Council in 1968.

He was twice married.

His first wife, Margaret, mother of the couple's two children, David and Patricia, died.

He moved to Italy in the 1980s, where he married his second wife, Rosa, in Rome.

The one-time chairman of the folklore festival, who used to introduce the groups at concerts, returned to Billingham regularly, timing his visits to see the festival, family and friends.

Previously an alderman of Teesside from 1968 until 1974, Mr Tatchell was created an honorary alderman of Stockton Borough Council.

Ex-Stockton councillor, Harry Davies who will read the eulogy at a memorial service for his friend at St Mary Magdalene Church, Billingham, on Saturday, said: "His great love was cars.

"The last time I saw him, about this time last year, he had just returned from a tour of America with his grandson, and they had gone to all the car rallies over there.''

Mr Tatchell died after a long battle with cancer.