He was the first mayor of Radstock, forced to step down for health reasons, but Keith Tyrrell is still actively campaigning for the town, hoping that the best is yet to come.

Nub News interviewed Keith about his vision for Radstock when he was in office, about what needed to be done back then and is still critically important for the town today.

Keith told Nub News about his vision at the time, his legacy and why the council needs more women.

Keith said about when he took up the post: " You have to start somewhere.

We needed to expand and take control of car parks, from BANES, and the parks for children, big things like that, we needed to let them know we were responsible and able to take control of Radstock's destiny. Big things moving on from there we had to look at how to get Radstock moving again. How to bring people into Radstock. We have a fantastic museum, here, what else can we do? We have Bath on our doorstep so let's get people in.

One major thing we were looking at was the railway. It's a long term project, it's going to cost a lot of money, but there was money available for the town council to do that. It would take you to Frome, change at Westbury, London, all within an hour and a half, fantastic news."

On raising the profile of Radstock.

"In 2015 we were effectively a new council, so from that point we were really starting with a blank sheet of paper. We really had to build bridges, mainly with BANES, and we had to work with them. I spent many many meetings with councillors getting their confidence and we were winning that battle.

While I was chair of the council we really needed to raise that profile again, so I went out to people I trusted and believed in around the area.

One of the things we could do, we could change the profile from chair to mayor. I am very proud of that and I still am. From that time just changing that one one word, mayor from chair, it was surprising how many other councillors and groups wanted to engage with us.

You had the same chain of office, but more doors were opened to me.

I used to attend meetings and go to see business people. We needed new and younger blood and we badly needed women to balance the books of the town council. I actually went around the town and talked to all kinds of people. But people are very reluctant to give their time, sadly, not many came forward and until they do, until the people of Radstock get involved, get involved in the community things won't change My attitude is get involved it will really help this town move forward."

In terms of parking: " It is vitally important. Radstock suffers from a lack of parking, particularly for the workers of Radstock."

Making The Hub of Radstock: "We wanted to create this new centre,which is there now, trying to join the old with the new. But also where the old town council offices were, it wasn't suitable, actually it was an awful building and the general public didn't know where the council was. Our view was move the town council to a place in the middle of Radstock which is accessible to everyone in Radstock."

And for the next decade?

"I like to see a continual development. Let's see a railway coming to Radstock, let's see it vibrant, let's get things moving. It badly needs a supermarket or a super store around.. somewhere around for the general public to be able to shop...and then go to the museum."