My friend and fellow councillor Peter Christie, who has died aged 73, was Britain’s first Green party mayor and the youngest mayor of Bideford in Devon.
He joined the Greens (then known as the Ecology party) in 1981 after hearing a talk by Edward Goldsmith, founding editor and publisher of the Ecologist magazine. Within a couple of years he had been elected to Bideford town council, becoming mayor in 1985. He fulfilled that role on a further three occasions, topping the polls in the next 11 elections in which he stood.
In 1991 Peter was elected to Torridge district council, becoming chairman in 2014. As a councillor he co-founded a local nature reserve, set up a scheme to help establish local businesses and highlighted many environmental issues.
