lloyd wilce, 86, is britain's longest serving councillor after 66 years in office  britain's longest serving councillor is hoping to be re elected for the 16th time – after 66 years in office lloyd wilce, 86, was first elected in 1949 and has run unopposed for more than 20 years because of a lack of candidates this year the labour member will have to defend his seat on cinderford town council in gloucestershire on may 7, but is yet to find out how many candidates will run against him the authority has changed name three times since he was first elected and he has seen countless mayors and leaders he counts his biggest political victories as securing a bigger swimming pool for the gloucestershire town and raising enough money to erect a bronze statue of a miner great grandfather mr wilce said: 'all those years ago i never thought for a second i would last this long as a councillor 'in fact, around three years ago i had a spell of poor health and i didn't think i would last much longer 'but here i am, and i enjoy just being part of the community i've always liked joining in with things and being part of what is going on in the area' his interest in politics began when he joined the labour league of youth as a teenager and became their regional chairman aged 16 he was listed to the royal electrical and mechanical engineers for two years, serving around the uk, where he was the army's top middle distance runner this year the labour member (pictured meeting locals) will have to defend his seat on cinderford town council for the first time on may 7  lloyd wilce was first elected in 1949 after serving in the army (pictured left, in the army in 1947) for two years right, with his son adrian in 1960  following his national service he got a job at debenhams in gloucester in 1949 and won his first seat on what was then called east dean parish council he joined in a bid to improve cinderford's sports facilities and one of his early political achievements was raising enough money to increase the size of the town's swimming pool 'i had been on a proper running track and we had nothing like that in cinderford   there was no swimming pool or sports facilities 'when i got demobbed and i had an interest in those things, and there was some councillor making moves and thinking we wanted to have those things, so i got involved mr wilce celebrating his 50 years of service at the council with wife mary and sons nigel and adrian in 1999  'i put on a carnival and got the funds to make the pool at the school into a bigger pool than planned and got the support of the council' mr wilce had two sons with wife mary and after 17 years in the outfitting trade the pair took over the village hall in steam mills, gloucestershire they applied for a pub licence and ran it as the old engine inn for around 25 years before he retired and mary passed away four years ago, aged 77 he has met tony blair and john prescott during his tenure, as well as going to the queen's garden party twice and visiting the house of commons and the lords his proudest achievement in his political career is raising £20,000 through bingo nights for a bronze statue of a miner in cinderford, to remember the town's history in 2000 mr wilce and wife mary pictured outside buckingham palace, where they attended a garden party in 2001  lloyd wilce, wife mary and children adrian and nigel, pictured outside their home in cinderford, around 1960  he has registered to stand for election on may 7, but is yet to find out how many people will stand against him 'i wasn't going to stand but i had my arm twisted   people said i had been doing it so long i might as well keep going,' he said 'i'm pretty sure with all these other parties like ukip that there will be an election this year and i'll probably go against someone else 'i don't know that i'm very happy about ukip to be honest 'they promise an awful lot and from what i've seen of farage i'm not sure their ideas are good ones 'i wouldn't put myself forward if i didn't think i was going to get in, but i'll have to wait and see i guess' speaking of david cameron's announcement that he would leave after three terms as pm, mr wilce remained sceptical 'he might change his mind,' he said the local authority has changed name three times since he was first elected and he has seen countless mayors and leaders pictured: cinderford, gloucestershire 
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