FRED Winwood was a councillor and campaigner for the Hamworthy area, whose landmark power station he helped build.

Mr Winwood, who has died aged 91, served as a Liberal and later Liberal Democrat on Poole council for 14 years and was mayor in 1994-95.

He spent his working life in civil engineering and was a foreman in charge of building the pump house at Poole Power Station, whose giant chimneys were demolished in 1993.

He started work on the power station as a teenager immediately after World War Two.

“We would excavate about 40ft of mud for the foundations, or drive in clusters of concrete piles to 50ft. Then there was a 6ft bed of chalk across the entire site,” he recalled in 1995.

“The whole of Hamworthy turned when that was being transported in.

“I would guess about half a dozen men died in the construction of each of the power stations I worked on. It’s so sad, and that’s what sticks in my mind.”

Walking through the wreckage of the demolished power station in 1995, he found a bolt which secured the station’s lightning conductor and kept it as a souvenir.

“The truth is, no matter how much we loved the place, it was ugly,” he said.

But his view on the station’s looks later softened, and in 2014 he said: “It was a very attractive building, built with local brick – better than the rubbish they use today.”

He added: “I worked on power station sites for about 25 years. Quite often I would sit down with the six o’clock news and see a building and its chimney coming down that I was involved with.”

Mr Winwood settled in Hamworthy after working on the power station and in 1982, he stood for the Liberal Party at a by-election, winning the seat and holding it until he stood down in 1995.

He was a critic of the commercial expansion of the Port of Poole, accusing the council of “putting the cart before the horse” by allowing the port to grow without the necessary roads in place. He warned traffic congestion would worsen until the old Poole Bridge was replaced.

He chaired the borough’s environmental services committee and served as sheriff in 1993-94, then mayor in 1994-95.

He was upbeat about the commercial future of the town. Opening the Lambda Group’s offices on the Nuffield Industrial Estate in 1994, he said: “I think we will be seen as the capital of industry and commerce in Dorset and I think that’s wonderful.”

After his council service, he became chairman of Hamside Residents Association.

He campaigned on a host of local issues, including the Twin Sails Bridge, the protection of Hamworthy Park, beach hut rents, and the long absence of a supermarket in the area after Co-Op was wrecked by fire.

He was also concerned about the boom in residential development in the area, warning in 2008: "We're stacking them into flats like battery hens, with no infrastructure to support them."

He continued speaking up on Hamworthy and Poole issues until the end of his days.

Mr Winwood’s daughter Sally died in 2013 and his wife Betty in 2015. He is survived by son Roger and grandchildren Christopher, Catherine, Hayley and Steven.

A committal and cremation service, to be attended by close family, was being held at Harbour View Crematorium today, with a memorial service at 12noon at St Michael’s Church, Hamworthy.

Donations in his memory can be made to Forest Holme Hospice (Macmillan Community Nurses) at tapper funeralservice.co.uk