Busy times for ex-policeman

Former Welshpool policeman Gwilym Rippon (right) has achieved a UK first in his new life away from fighting crime.

 

Mr. Rippon’s new-found career has gone from strength to strength after he became the only one of his peers to pass his certificate in local council administration in two separate countries.

 

The Guilsfield-based administrator is clerk to councils based both sides of the border and is currently overseeing affairs at Abermule with Llandyssil in Powys as well as Kington in Herefordshire and Bettws y Crwyn and Newcastle-on-Clun in Shropshire.

 

And to top it all off the new qualification, which is a benchmark minimum standard of running for parish councils keen on achieving “quality status” and differs according to Welsh or English law, comes just as he prepares for yet more study.

 

Mr. Rippon took up various clerk positions following semiretirement three years ago but is now embarking on a two-year foundation degree course on Community Engagement and Governance at the University of Gloucester.

 

“I am a person who just wants to know how things work and not sit on my laurels,” he said. “It’s basically like you have a car and this is the nuts and bolts – you want to see how you make it work.”

 

Mr Rippon is also a county support officer, employment officer and Wales’ regional training manager for the Society of Local Council Clerks.