Tributes paid to former Mayor

Tributes have been paid to former Mayor of Rochdale Albert Edwin Sanderson.

Mr Sanderson, aged 80, died at his home in Mazarron, Spain on Thursday (15 December).

Mr Sanderson was Mayor in 1983/1984 and was a councillor for 26 years.

He was a Labour councillor in the Smallbridge ward and in 1999 he received a long-service award from Rochdale Council. He had been a member since the metropolitan borough was formed in 1974.

Mr Sanderson grew up on the Clover Hall Estate and attended Heybrook Primary School. He played for Burnley Football Club and was also a groundsman at Rochdale AFC.

His friend and former councillor, Allan Whitehead said he was “football mad” and described him as “quite a happy person.”

He said: “He was a councillor in Smallbridge and I was a councillor in Newbold so we only met at council meetings and we didn’t talk politics.

“He was one of the big lads from Clover Hall and that’s how I knew him from that day.”

Mr Whitehead said that Mr Sanderson and his wife, Jean, have lived in Spain for the past 4-6 years.

Councillor Ashley Dearnley served on the Council alongside Mr Sanderson and described him as a “nice friendly man.”

Councillor Dearnley, said: “I was on the Council with Albert and he was a man who got on with people from all parties. He always put the interests of Rochdale first and he wasn’t party political, he always wanted the best for his ward of Smallbridge.

“I worked closely with him because of our neighbouring wards. I remember he was chairman of a committee called land and he was always very helpful.

“He is a good example to many councillors who perhaps don’t think that way today.”

Councillor Lil Murphy described Mr Sanderson as “a very good, jovial, nice man.”

She said: “He was a fine, upstanding fella. A real gentleman and a real trooper.”

Councillor Pat Flynn remembers Mr Sanderson as a “jolly” man.

She said: “He was a man who spoke his mind, I recall him as a nice man.

“One of the things I remember was he bought the public toilets on Albert Royds Street and turned them into his office!”