TRIBUTES were this evening paid to four Winchester city councillors who are standing down at the elections next month.

There was a standing ovation to former mayor Chris Pines, 70, the veteran Labour councillor who was first elected in 1980 with a one-year break in 2010-11, representing St John and All Saints ward better-known as Winnall, Highcliffe and St Giles Hill.

Council leader Frank Pearson told the Council meeting that Chris "was the best-known political figure in Winchester.

"His favourite surgery location was the Bakers Arms, much appreciated by the landlord and his clients," he joked.

Cllr Pines said he would remember cutting entrance charges to the City Museum and seeing a resulting tenfold increase in visitors.

He also thanked the work of “hundreds of council officers; almost everybody has been exemplary and I think they do a tremendous job under huge difficulties.”

Also retiring is former mayor Sue Nelmes, a Lib Dem member since 1998 and mayor in 2006-07. She represents the St Bartholomew ward including Hyde and Abbotts Barton.

Cllr Nelmes, a shop steward at the council before retiring and standing for election, said: “I shall miss everybody and everything. It has been great.”

Harry Verney, Conservative member for Cheriton and Bishop’s Sutton, is standing down after serving since 2002.

He followed in the footsteps of his mother who represented the area as an independent.

Cllr Verney said when first elected Cllr Nelmes told him that he agreed with: “There’s very little politics in local government. We are here because we care about our communities.”

The fourth member going is Lib Dem Robert Hutchison, a councillor for the St Paul ward in the Fulflood area since 2010 and latterly the chairman of the town forum.

He said it had been a privilege to serve as a councillor and joked that it had helped his spiritual life. "I have had glimpses of eternity sitting in the Walton Room and this chamber."

They were all presented with certificates by the mayor, Eileen Berry.