A FORMER European Parliament member who started a career in journalism on the Wellington Weekly News (WWN) has died in Italy a week after his 81st birthday.

Richard Cottrell trained as a newspaper reporter under the late WWN editor Lloyd Jefferies, who died last November and whom he credited with making him the journalist he became.

After a few years he moved on to work on other local newspapers in Torquay, Devon, Boston, in Lincolnshire, and then as a sub-editor on the Bristol Evening Post.

In 1967 Mr Cottrell was offered a position with the then-HTV commercial television station, in Cardiff.

He moved his family in 1970 to Croscombe, between Wells and Shepton Mallet, and continued to work for HTV as a political reporter and an occasional presenter.

Then, in July, 1979, Mr Cottrell was elected in the first direct elections to the European Parliament for the Conservative Party, representing the Bristol constituency.

During his first term as an MEP, he joined the Committee on Transport through which he took part in ground-breaking projects such as the Channel Tunnel, and also served on the Committee on Youth, Culture, Education, Information, and Sport.

The late Richard Cottrell in his days at television company HTV.
The late Richard Cottrell in his days at television company HTV. PHOTO: Family. ( )

Mr Cottrell was re-elected an MEP in 1984, again for the Conservative Party, and served until July, 1989.

During his time in office Mr Cottrell, who was a railway enthusiast, began developing the ‘Avon Metro Scheme’ for Bristol and North Somerset, but the project was unable to attract the funding it needed despite making it into a draft Parliamentary Bill.

After losing his MEP seat, Mr Cottrell worked as a political advisor to international corporations looking to invest in the European countries looking to join the EU, notably Poland.

Mr Cottrell moved to live near Treviso, Italy, in 2003, where he died peacefully on July 18 and his funeral took place.

The late MEP and Wellington Weekly reporter Richard Cottrell at a celebration.
The late MEP and Wellington Weekly reporter Richard Cottrell at a celebration. PHOTO: Family. ( )

He was born in the former Wellington Maternity Home on July 11, 1943, the youngest child of Jack and Winnie Cottrell, and brother to Jane Cottrell, who lived in Clifford Terrace, Wellington.

As a child he attended Court Fields Secondary School and it was during his last few years there that teacher Minnie Maxwell noticed his language skills.

Mrs Maxwell found him a work placement, aged 15, on the Wellington Weekly in 1958, from where his journalism career took off.

Mr Cottrell was also an author of four books, his first ‘The Sacred Cow: Folly of Europe’s Food Mountains’ took the lid off the EU’s widely-criticised Common Agricultural Policy which created notorious ‘wine lakes’, and butter and cereal ‘mountains’.

The late Richard Cottrell in Italy, which he made his home for the last 21 years of his life.
The late Richard Cottrell in Italy, where he made his home for the last 21 years of his life. PHOTO: Family. ( )

It was followed by ‘Blood on their Hands’ about the murder in Athens of BBC London journalist Ann Chapman.

Mr Cottrell was seen by some as a conspiracy theorist and his third book in 2012 ‘Gladio’, was an analysis of the web of intrigues of Europe’s hidden but potent networks.

His fourth and final book was published in 2013, ‘Doctor Who? The Atomic Bomber Beeching and his War on the Railways’, which critiqued the decimation of the UK’s rail network.