I was passed the age when I could retire from teaching and get a pension, having been teaching for most of my adult life. Also I’d been at Calside School for over 20 years and, although it was good for most of the time, I felt that it was time to move on and do something else. Also, I had been a councillor before (from 1992 to 1996). That was on Nithsdale District Council, which no longer exists. Then you could be a councillor and a teacher, because it had nothing to do with education- it controlled council houses, refuse collection, sport, taxi licences. But when that council was abolished in 1996 I couldn’t be a councillor and a teacher any more because the new ‘big’ council controlled education. So when I was asked in 2007, after I retired from teaching, if I would like to try and become a councillor again, a agreed to give it a go and I won!