Dr John Cordwell was first elected to Gloucestershire County Council in 1981 and has represented the Wotton-under-Edge electoral division for the Liberal Democrats ever since. No previous Wotton member has served longer since the council was set up in 1888. From April 2000 to June 2001 he was Chairman of Gloucestershire County Council. 

John has had a lifelong interest in the environment and green issues and in 1970 joined The Conservation Society (now defunct) which wrote documents and lobbied on issues concerned with unsustainable population growth, the finite nature of resources and protection of the environment. He was for some time a member of the National Council of the Conservation Society and Honorary Regional Secretary for South West England. A founder member of the Bristol Branch of the Society, amongst other initiatives he convened a meeting of all the public transport bodies in Bristol, some time before the formation of Transport 2000.

This and other environmental interests led him to join the Liberal Party on the basis that it had the best environmental policies. He is a member of the Green Liberal Democrats. He campaigned locally on issues such as the Stroud Ring Road, which he opposed and which was never built. When the opportunity arose in 1981 he stood successfully as a candidate for Gloucestershire County Council and has continued to pursue his environmental concerns through the planning and transport aspects of the council's work. He chaired the committee dealing with these issues for over ten years. With the change in the council's management structure in September 2001 he became a member of the Cabinet, holding the Strategic Planning and Transport portfolio until the 2005 elections. John is now the Liberal Democrat Shadow Portfolio Holder for Planning and Transport. He is a member of the Gloucestershire Sustainable Energy Forum and of a County Task Group addressing Climate Change issues. He is a member of the Gloucestershire Parkway Cabinet Panel and chairs other transport-related task groups, including the Stroud Road Safety Liaison Group. He is a former member of the Gloucestershire Airport Consultative Committee. He is also a member of the County Council's Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.

John represents the county at a regional level on the South West Regional Assembly (SWRA), and is a member the Assembly's Regional Transport Board and its Climate Change Task Group. He is Vice-Chairman of its General Conformity Panel. For many years he served on the South West Regional Development Agency Board's Advisory Infrastructure Group. He is also represents Gloucestershire on the SW Region Local Government Association.

His interests in transportation matters also extend to the European regional level and the EU Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions and its Atlantic Arc Commission. He is particularly involved in securing EU funding to assist in improving intermodal travel in the western edge of Europe and in achieving recognition on the European rail network for passenger and freight lines in Gloucestershire and the South West. He was involved in a short sea shipping project under Interreg IIIB. He continues to represent the County Council on the Atlantic Arc Transport Group despite the County's Tory administration cancelling its membership of CPMR, the Atlantic Arc and AER in January 2006. He is also the lead UK member on this group.

He spearheaded the setting up of a Gloucestershire Brussels Office, subsequently subsumed into a West of England Office of which he chaired the Joint Members’ Board for its last years. In April 2001 a South West UK Brussels Office was set up serving the whole of the South West Region and he was Chairman of its Joint Management Committee until June 2005. He was a European Parliamentary Candidate for the West Midlands in June 1999.

He was born on Merseyside and attended school and university there. However his roots are in Gloucestershire: his father was born in Horfield and earlier generations for at least 300 years were born and lived in the county.

John came to Gloucestershire in 1969 and worked as a research metallurgist in the nuclear industry at Berkeley until 1994. Until recently, apart from his council work, he has been involved in the inspection of schools, and also on behalf of contractors has copy-edited and checked reports for compliance with Ofsted’s requirements. He is a member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders and  continues to undertake proofreading work, mostly in the planning and transport fields. He is married with two children. His wife June is a music teacher, his daughter Emma Noble teaches Mandarin Chinese and his son Jim works with computer software for the locally based company Renishaw.

John is a life member of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Vice-President of Wotton Civic Society and a trustee for several local organisations. He has served on Wotton Town Council since 1979 and has been Mayor for four of these and deputy mayor for five. His wife June was Mayor during 2002/03.  She served on Stroud District Council from 2002 to 2006, including chairing its Regeneration and Resources Scrutiny Committee, and was re-elected to the District Council in 2008. 

His hobbies (when he finds the time!) include local and family history and growing vines, other Mediterranean plants, and cacti and coldwater fish.