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My mother, Flick Rea, who has died aged 88, was a stalwart of local politics in London, serving as a councillor in Camden for 35 years.

She was leader of the Liberal and then Liberal Democrat group on Camden council twice, from the late 1980s to 2005 and from 2014 to 2020, and helped it to grow from a handful of seats to be the largest party on the council in 2006. She served as its cabinet member for culture and sport for four years, overseeing the borough’s contribution to the London Olympics.

Flick represented the same ward, Fortune Green, continuously, winning nine elections in a row on the back of a huge personal vote. On her retirement in 2021, the local press hailed her as the “Queen of West Hampstead”.

Born in Tiverton, Devon, as Felicity Corbin, she was the only child of Eustace Corbin, a teacher, and his wife, Phyllis (nee Brabner). She grew up in Taunton, Somerset, where she went to Weirfield school.

From an early age Flick had wanted to work in the theatre, and after leaving school she attended Rada. Graduating in 1958, she began to work in theatre, and occasionally in television and cinema, under the name Felicity Peel, with bit parts in The Avengers and the film A Kind of Loving (1962). She met her husband, Charles Rea, a fellow actor, in 1959 in a production of Love from a Stranger at the Bristol Hippodrome. After the pair married in 1962 she gave up her theatrical career to look after their children.

In the 1970s Flick became involved in local politics almost by accident, inspired by a growing interest in improving public transport. She would later say: “I never wanted to try to save the world. I just wanted to get a bus stop erected.” She joined the Liberal party, transforming and energising its West Hampstead branch with her own brand of “pavement politics” – fighting to get things done for her local community.

She was elected as a councillor in 1986. Her theatrical style in the council chamber – blending charm, wit and occasional withering put-downs – won her many admirers, even among her political foes.

Her dedication to public service was not limited to party politics, however. She co-founded a community transport pressure group, served on the boards of the London Arts Council and Hampstead theatre, worked for the Pedestrians Association, and was a trustee of the Charles Dickens Museum.

In 2013 she was made appointed MBE and became an alderman of Camden in 2024. She will be remembered for her warmth, wit and wisdom, usually delivered over a glass of whisky and a cigarette.

Charles died in 1992. She is survived by their children, Kate and me, and five grandchildren.