Preceded by New Creation Role Politician Party Ulster Unionist Party | Website www.billy-bell.co.uk Succeeded by Basil McCrea Name Billy Bell | |
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Born 9 October 1935 (age 88)
Belfast, Northern Ireland ( 1935-10-09 ) | ||
Political party Ulster Unionist Party | ||
Billy bell audition
William Bradshaw "Billy" Bell, OBE, JP (born 9 October 1935), is a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland and former Lord Mayor of Belfast.
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He served as a Councillor on Belfast City Council from 1976 to 1985 and was Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1979 to 1980. He also served on Lisburn Council (1989–2007) and was Mayor of the City of Lisburn in 2003, the only person to be mayor of two different cities in the United Kingdom.
He was Personal Assistant to MP Rt Hon Sir James Molyneaux from 1976 to 1997. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (1975–1976) for North Belfast, and to the Northern Ireland Assembly for the Lagan Valley constituency in 1998 and again in 2003. In 1996 he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Northern Ireland Forum election in Lagan Valley. Bell stood in the 2007 election after re-selection by his party, however he lost his seat to fellow UUP candidate, Basil McCrea.
He was appointed a Justice of the peace in 1985, and is a former member of the Northern Ireland Housing Council.
Trivia
He is a cousin of the physicist John Stewart Bell.