A FORMER Wantage councillor and restaurant owner who served his community for half a century has died aged 86.

John Coates, of Naldertown, Wantage, ran restaurants in the town and in Grove.

A Conservative, his career in local government began in 1968 when he won the West Hanney seat on Wantage Rural District Council.

He held it until 1974, when the district was abolished, and then contested and won the same seat on the newly-formed Vale of White Horse District Council.

When running for the Oxfordshire County Council seat of Wantage Town in 1981, he invoked the fury of a Catholic priest when he posted a campaign leaflet through his letterbox.

The priest, who had clashed with town councillors over a plan to develop land next to his church, posted them back to him with a letter that said: “To hell with you. May you see the bottom of a ladder.” Mr Coates came second in the election to the Social Democrat candidate.

He was also known in Wantage and Grove business circles and was the owner and manager of the Chatterbox restaurant in Grove, which he opened in 1971.

John Coates was born in Exeter in August 1927, with his twin sister Jean. His younger brother Peter predeceased him.

He grew up in London and married his wife, May, in 1951.

They moved to Wantage in 1964 when Mr Coates worked as a manager of enterprises at Richard Todd Farms Ltd, owned by film star and actor Richard Todd, at Elms Farm Dairy in Grove.

The couple lived in the Hanneys and were active in village affairs.

They had three daughters – Judith in 1956, Sally in 1960 and Mary in 1969.

They later moved to Grovelands Park, Grove, in 1971, and opened the Chatterbox restaurant in the newly-built Millbrook Square.

In 1976 they opened a similar restaurant in Newbury Street, Wantage.

They ran the restaurant until 1988, when Mrs Coates became warden of Maude House sheltered accommodation for elderly people in Chestnuts.

Mr Coates was involved in a number of community groups and helped organise the Sports for the Disabled group, which provided activities for physically and mentally handicapped people.

Its participants included Oxford archer Kathy Smith, who won a team bronze medal for Great Britain in the Atlanta 1996 Paralympics and later a team gold at Athens in 2004.

Mr Coates also helped to run a community information centre and campaigned for a bandstand at Wantage recreational ground, as well as showing support for the Vale and Downland Museum.

He was a committed Freemason and a member of the Hatchlands Lodge, in London, and the Loyd Lindsay Lodge in Wantage.

John Coates died on Tuesday, May 13. A funeral took place in Wantage Methodist Church yesterday.

He is survived by his wife, his daughters Judith, Sally and Mary, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

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