THE date of the funeral for Pontypool Community Council’s first clerk who died earlier this month has been announced.

Ruth Tucker took on the role of clerk when the council was formed in 1985 and remained as the council’s senior officer until her retirement in March 2022. She died on Wednesday, May 10, just days after her 68th birthday.

Her funeral will be held on  Wednesday, June 14 at Gwent Crematorium in Croesyceiliog, Cwmbran at 11.30 am.

Torfaen MP, and Labour’s shadow secretary of state for international trade, Nick Thomas-Symonds and his predecessor Lord Paul Murphy were among those to pay tribute to Mrs Tucker who was from New Inn, Pontypool.

Lord Murphy who served as both Welsh secretary and Northern Ireland secretary said he had known Mrs Tucker since the 1960s and described as probably one of the longest serving clerks in Wales.

He said: “She was a very nice person, had a great social conscience who served the community for many decades and was very much a Pontypool girl, brought up in New Inn, so was rooted in our local community and was really the ideal candidate to be the clerk for Pontypool and did a very good job. She knew Pontypool inside out.”