As with many councillors, John Jowers fell into local government politics by accident.

It was not a major national issue which acted as a springboard for the 78-year-old’s political career, and nor was it of much significance at a regional level.

It was, quite simply, a need for a footpath in West Mersea because walkers felt they were dicing with death every time they walked down to the boat yard.

Mr Jowers, in his 40s by this stage and a well-known fisherman on the island, was implored to help out by another islander.

“John, you’ve got the gift of the gab – can you help out?”

Forty years on, the path is still there.

“You just need a bit of common sense,” Mr Jowers said.

The Conservative councillor was sworn in as Colchester’s 190th mayor on Wednesday, and aside from the jokes that he is long in the tooth, the tributes to Mr Jowers from across the chamber were glowing and highly complimentary.

If Mr Jowers’s involvement in local politics was accidental, his return to Mersea certainly was not.

It is an island whose history is strongly intertwined with the Jowers, with the family name stretching back in that part of Essex to the 1300s.

It was the 1960s, and despite having been educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School before studying in Leicester and teaching in Lincoln, Mr Jowers wanted to return to his roots.

“As a kid, I had grown up on Mersea. All my mates were in the fishing industry – I was being promoted as an academic and I could see my life, boringly endless before me.

“At the time there were no restrictions on fishing, and you could earn an awful lot of dosh.”

‘And did you?” I asked.

“Yes.”

But it wasn’t the money which Mr Jowers was in it for – his life before local politics was one addicted to a sense of adventure and seeing a different side to the world.

“Richard Howard, a friend from school, said that if you really want a change, come down here because it’s pretty damn good.

“I sold my house, and put my money into a boat; some of the crew couldn’t read or write very well but they could weld an engine, build a net, and caulk a boat.

“I saw a different side of life – I went from the usual thing which was getting a decent education and moving away, and instead I got an education and then came back.”

Mr Jowers may like nothing more than to reminisce about his days as an old sea dog, but when he turned his hand to politics, he was rather good at that too, at one stage serving as chair of Essex County Council.

Quiz him on his life as a politician, however, Mr Jowers talks less about his own achievements and more about the difference which volunteers can make to people’s lives.

“Something that’s followed me through for years is seeing volunteers – we never give them enough credit.

“It’s amazing, some of the people out there – they don’t get to be mayors and wear robes.

“They get their heads down, get stuck in, and do incredible thing; there are more people doing good things in Mersea than you can shake a stick at.”

Even when he was right in the thick of it as a local councillor, the ring of the ship’s bell was never far away; indeed, Mr Jowers recalls how, an hour after leaving a council meeting, he would be unloading pounds upon pounds of sprat in West Mesrea.

Fishing, like local politics it seems, is something of an addiction.