Ken Hulme died on Friday morning in the Royal Oldham Hospital, the same place he was born 62 years ago. He had been ill for a short time and this has come as a great shock to his family and friends
Ken had been the Parish Councillor for Delph and Denshaw on Saddleworth Parish Council for the past eight years representing firstly the Labour Party and latterly as an Independent. He was the current Vice Chairman of the Parish Council and hoped to be chairman in 2012.
Ken was active in many campaigns including successfully defending Saddleworth from wind turbines, campaigning on traffic issues to make Delph a safer place , supporting relatives with concerns about the future of the Independent Graveyard, fighting to keep the library in Delph open and successfully fundraising for new facilities. He was a member of the Delph Community Organisation, the Delph Traffic Group , the White Rose Society and Secretary of the Saddleworth Peace Movement. He had also helped a great number of individuals who came to him with personal problems.
Before moving back to the North West in 2001, Ken worked in London campaigning and supporting many radical causes. He was Organising Secretary of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee, worked for Oxfam and ran the Will Aid Campaign. He previously worked for the Greater London Council as Peace Year and Jobs Year Co-ordinator. He won the City Limits award for best benefit for ‘Five nights for the miners’ at the Royal Albert Hall which raised substantial funds to support miners during the 1984/5 strike. He made his first foray into political fundraising when he was the National Organiser of the Chile Solidarity Campaign and organised the annual Chile concert.
He led the Delph Methodist Cubs for the past eight years and had just started a full time post as a Teaching Assistant in a Manchester School.
He loved live music, his garden and the Saddleworth hills.
Ken was married to Hannah Roberts in 1989 and is survived by her and his much loved son George.