Tributes to former Liverpool lord mayor and 'all-action politician'

Liverpool City Council tweeted that Mr Doran would be "greatly missed"

Tributes have paid to "all-action politician" and "great son of Liverpool" Frank Doran, who has died at the age of 72.

The former Liberal Democrat councillor, who was Liverpool's lord mayor in 1996, helped the city become European Capital of Culture in 2008.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2013.

Liverpool City Council tweeted that Mr Doran would be "greatly missed".

It added that the flag on the city's town hall would be flown at half mast "as a mark of respect".

'A real character'

The Liberal Democrat politician helped Liverpool win its bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2003 and was the council's cabinet member for culture during its hosting year.

Having been first elected to his Kensington ward in 1973, he served as a city councillor until 2008.

A veteran who served in both the Parachute Regiment and the intelligence corps, he was also a teaching technician in the department of chemistry at the University of Liverpool. 

In 2014, he was made an honorary alderman of the city and two years later, he became an MBE in the New Year's Honours for services to the community in Liverpool.

His friend and colleague, councillor Richard Kemp, said Mr Doran had been "a great son of Liverpool" who had a "wicked sense of humour" and was a "huge influence" on him.

He said he had been a "fighter" for his local community, his city, his party and his country "where he risked his life in challenging times".

Fellow Liberal Democrat councillor Andrew Makinson said he was "a real character, lord mayor and, most of all, a powerful and loyal champion for Kensington and Fairfield".

Former Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard tweeted that Mr Doran had been a "great friend and one of the original 48 Liberal councillors who took control of the city in 1973".

Mr Doran is survived by his wife Sandra and two stepchildren.

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