A stalwart of local government who has spent almost 40 years as a councillor is to be given the freedom of Hastings and St Leonards.

Pam Brown, 81, will step down as Mayor of Hastings on May 17 when her successor is elected.

Just before last week's local elections she stepped down as councillor for Castle Ward, in St Leonards, after 38 years, to enjoy her retirement.

She was succeeded by fellow Liberal Democrat Edward Armstrong.

She will be granted the Freedom of the Borough the day she steps down as mayor.

But she has not finished just yet. Mrs Brown said: "I will be 82 in November and I feel it is time to step out of the limelight. But I am still involved in a lot of organisations and I will stay with them as long as they want me to.

"The feeling of being a part of the town, helping people and doing what you can is hard to let go of. But it is good to have been involved the way I have."

Despite her love of the town, Mrs Brown is not a Hastings woman born and bred. But then they say converts are more devout.

She moved to Eastbourne and then to Hastings in the Fifties with her husband when he left the police force in London.

Mrs Brown said: "It was a totally different town then. Hastings was very run down. The ward had been neglected. After another leaflet came through my door I decided to try politics. I wasn't a political animal at all but once I started I couldn't stop."

She became a borough councillor in the old town, as it was then, in 1968. In 1974 she became a county councillor, when the council was formed, losing her seat only once in 17 years in 1977. She never lost her seat in Hastings.

She said: "It was totally Conservative back then and you couldn't speak. But it gradually became more liberal and in 1996 there was not a single Tory, 17 Lib Dems and 15 Labour.

"I first became leader of this council in 1979 when we were a hung council full of men. We always managed a hung council rather well. People had to justify what they wanted to do. They had to convince other people."

Mrs Brown said: "Hastings is going up and I hope we started it. I am proud of the work we did."