The deputy mayor of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has died.

Cllr Colin Bothwell (Con) passed away on Thursday. He was 70.

He had served as a borough councillor for 10 years, representing Southborough and High Brooms. He had been a Southborough Town Councillor even longer.

He was the mayor of Southborough from 2009 to 2010.

He had served on numerous committees, including six years as vice chairman of the borough’s licensing committee.

A spokesman said: “Colin will be greatly missed by his friends and colleagues at the council and our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”

Cllr Bothwell was born in Essex and moved to Southborough, his wife’s home town, 33 years ago.

He later said of Southborough: “It’s a wonderful town; I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”

He was a director for Tunbridge Wells Scouts and a fund-raiser for Age Concern, among many other charities.

Tunbridge Wells MP Greg Clark was among those to pay tribute to him yesterday, describing Cllr Bothwell as “warm, generous, funny and kind - a local hero.”

Mr Clark said: “Colin was a staunch Conservative, and a great campaigner for our party. But politics was never divisive with Colin. It’s a mark of the man that people who were his political opponents were also among his closest friends.”

The funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.