Mick Bates, the former Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire, has died, the party has announced. He was 74.
Mr. Bates’ daughter Ruth published a tribute to him on Facebook. She wrote;
Mr. Bates represented Montgomeryshire for the party in the then Welsh assembly – now the Senedd – from 1999 to 2010.
He resigned as a Lib Dem in 2010 after being found guilty of attacking paramedics who came to his aid after he drunkenly fell down the stairs at a Cardiff restaurant.
Mr. Bates became the Assembly Member (AM) for Montgomeryshire in the new institution’s first election in 1999.
After his resignation from the Lib Dems, Mr. Bates continued as an independent AM until he stood down from the assembly in 2011.
Prior to becoming the Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire, Mr. Bates worked as a teacher, farmer and as a county councillor.