For many years the city centre was congested a circumstance not helped by a network of trams

For many years the city centre was congested, a circumstance not helped by a network of trams. Under the eye of the City Fathers streets were pedestrianised and tree- planting and signage schemes started.The preservation and improvement of Cardiff Castle in the heart of the city owes much to Dunleavy's enthusiasm. He called in craftsmen to carry out restoration work of the building, which stands in Bute Park, named after the first Marquess of Bute who at the end of the 18th century began revitalising the castle. In 1948 the fifth marquess gave the castle and its grounds to the council, which uses it for civic functions, receptions and trade promotions. The National Ice Rink, home of the Cardiff Devils, one of Britain's leading ice hockey teams, also benefited from his persuasive lobbying.Philip Dunleavy was Lord Mayor of Cardiff from 1982 to 1983, and then retired from local government service. His devotion to helping those in need continued, with youth clubs, housing associations and the Citizen's Advice Bureaux being among those to benefit.He leaves behind a legacy some consider as important as his contribution to civic affairs - the encouragement of new generations of Labour politicians in Wales's capital.

Alun Michael, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth and an opposition home affairs spokesman, who served alongside Dunleavy as a city councillor, described him as "an inspiration". "He towered over Cardiff's political landscape," he said.Tony HeathPhilip Dunleavy, local politician: born Cardiff 5 October 1915; member, Cardiff City Council 1962-83, Leader 1974-76, 1979-82; member, South Glamorgan County Council 1974-81; OBE 1978, CBE 1983; Lord Mayor of Cardiff 1982- 83; married 1936 Valerie Partridge (two sons, two daughters); died Cardiff 13 January 1996.. Williams and another v Natural Life Health Foods Ltd and another; Queen's Bench Division (Mr Justice Langley); 1 December 1995 A director of a company was personally liable to the plaintiffs for the loss caused by the company's negligent misstatement where, although the director had no direct contact with the plaintiffs, the company was selling his personal experience and skill and he could be taken to have assumed a personal duty to the plaintiffs. Mr Justice Langley gave judgment for the plaintiffs against the second defendant in the sum of pounds 84,641.The plaintiffs entered into a franchise agreement relating to the operation of a health-food shop with the first defendant company of which the second defendant was the owner and managing director. From Bristol to the North of England, they have filled halls and given MPs angry meetings to contend with, of a kind most politicians rarely encounter.Being local, they campaign about things that Westminster never hears about Take one example. But they have held hundreds of meetings, trained scores of local leaders, changed the policies of supermarkets and building societies, forced local councils to clear illegal tipping sites, campaigned on homelessness and repossession, persuaded businesses to move and helped to alter policing tactics.How do they do it? By being legal troublemakers, picketing, jamming up offices, haranguing company directors and local politicians. Any attempt to describe them as left-wing or right-wing would, so far as I can see, be futile.What do they do? It is early days: the oldest was founded only five years ago in Bristol. They are overwhelmingly working class, have very little interest or past involvement in party politics and are strikingly idealistic.Their organisations are partly made up of what they call ''faith communities'' - local churches, mosques, synagogues and Hindu temples - alongside community groups, tenants' associations and so on; their literature includes a heady mix of Guru Nanak (''the test of learning is action'') and John Stuart Mill (''the only government which can fully satisfy all the necessities of the social state is one in which the whole people participate'').

There are about 60,000 people involved so far, from inner-city areas of Merseyside, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Bristol, north- east Wales, Sheffield and east London. This is probably because these stakeholders have no nationally known leaders; they operate at a level below the attention of the essay-writing classes and have little interest in the conventional politics which obsess us.Those I have come across are gathered under the umbrella of the Citizen Organising Foundation. Our big fact is globalisation, both the wealth it can bring, but also the fear that powerful world markets will turn us into thistledown people, blown about by forces beyond us - people without gravity, without a stake. Tony Blair's stakeholding was clearly meant to be a response to this general feeling of voter insecurity, to reassure people that political action can help to tie them more securely into their jobs, communities and country. The argument about stakeholding has, thus far, been partisan and abstract But I have some news I have met stakeholders. For the past few years they have been organising and training across the country, and no one at Westminster or in the think-tanks seems to have noticed. I am always amused when driving to Bracknell from the southern end of the A329(M).