Tributes have poured in for a former Labour Hove councillor, who passed away this week.

Don Turner served as an elected member of his community for 22 years as a county councillor in East Sussex and later a city councillor in Brighton and Hove.

First elected as a representative for Hove and Portslade in 1985, he became a city councillor in 1997 before standing down in 2007.

The popular Labour member, who represented Portslade North on the city council, twice ran for Hove’s parliamentary seat in 1987 and 1992, finishing third and then second.

Paying tribute to their former colleague, current councillors said he was an outstanding public official as well as a great person.

“We were very much different from each other,” said Coun Bob Carden. “Don was the brains and I used to do the donkey work in the ward and we complemented each other very well.”

Coun Les Hamilton added: “He’ll be sadly missed. He was very conscientious and a decent chap who was very concerned for the community.

“He was quite a sharp person and people spoke well of him. I remember one story that he went up to Gatwick once to stop someone being deported.”

During more than two decades as a councillor Mr Turner sat as a Labour member on the city’s Housing and Licensing Committees before going on to become the chairman on the policy and resource committee, the housing and housing management sub-committee and licensing committee.

After standing down from the council in 2007 he was appointed as an Honorary Alderman and Freeman of the city in July.

Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Hove and Portslade Peter Kyle took to Facebook to pay tribute to the man in whose footsteps he’s now following.

He wrote: “Few of us will leave such an irreplaceable mark on our own communities and for that we should be proud of his achievement.”

Labour leader of Brighton and Hove, Warren Morgan, said: “I was lucky to have served with him during my first term on the council, when for me he was a source of sound advice and an example of clear and firm leadership on many issues.”

He is survived by his wife Rita and three children.