"Mrs Mayoralty": Council's longest-serving employee announces her retirement

Olwen Heap spent an ‘idyllic’ childhood in Downham and attended Clitheroe Grammar School before starting work at Ribble Valley Borough Council in 1983 aged 17.

Over the years, she has seen significant changes to the council’s administrative practices, particularly the switch from handwritten to online minute-taking and recordkeeping.

Olwen said: “In those days, the chief executive, Michael Jackson, was always called ‘Mr Jackson’ and councillors were always called ‘Councillor’.

“Female employees were not allowed to wear trousers and in common with other workplaces at the time smoking was allowed.

“There were no computers and minutes were taken by hand, dictated into a Dictaphone and typed up by a typing pool.

“Modern administrative systems have improved the job significantly and made it much quicker and more efficient.”

Olwen took up the role of mayor’s secretary and committee clerk in 1989, since which she has clerked hundreds of council meetings and organised numerous civic events that have raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity.

And noted for her gracious manner, unflappable personality and forensic knowledge of civic protocol, past mayors have been quick to sing her praises.

Howel Jones, who was Ribble Valley mayor from 1990-91, Olwen’s first year in the post, said: “I was excellently supported by Olwen's painstaking background work and careful arrangements, and during the following years I came to regard her as a mine of information on civic matters.”

Howel’s wife, Beverley Jones, who was mayor from 2009-10, said “every council should have an Olwen.”