NORTHWICH councillors led the tributes to a much-loved community figure who died last week, aged 92.
Len Breeze, who together with wife Kitty Oakes ran Mid Cheshire School of Dancing, passed away in his sleep on November 5, a month after the couple celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary.
Popular Len was a pharmacist at Boots before serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) corps of the British Army during the Second World War.
After the war he gave up his job and joined Kitty at her dancing school on Witton Street.
In 1953 the school, which was the meeting place for numerous couples who went on to get married, relocated to new premises opposite the bus station on Chester Way.
Len was also a Northwich Urban District councillor for most of the 50s.
Kitty helped raise thousands of pounds for charity and was a key part of the fundraising to built the Memorial Hall, and is now the Hall’s last surviving trustee. After it opened Len established Breeze’s Toys and Prams on the same site as the dancing school.
The couple left England in 1970 to build a house in Mallorca and split their time between the Balearics and Mid Cheshire for the next 10 years.
Len was a Cheshire Show stalwart, helping every year until the mid 1990s, and also worked tirelessly to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
He was an active member of the Northwich branch of Probus, and the Mid Cheshire Lions.
Ron Carey represented Northwich East for Cheshire County Council for 31 years, and worked alongside Mr Breeze on the Northwich Urban District Council.
He said: “He was very well known and he made a lot of good contributions to Northwich. He was a good friend.”
Long-standing County Cllr Nora Dolphin described Mr Breeze as “very well respected and admired”. She added: “He will be very fondly remembered by a lot of people in the community. I certainly have warm memories of him.”
