A UNIVERSITY lecturer and environmental campaigner collapsed and died from a heart attack shortly after setting off fireworks at a party he was hosting for neighbours.

Dr Joe Weston, who taught planning at Oxford Brookes University and led the campaign to have the M40 re-routed, had invited friends and villagers to his home in Forest Hill for a Bonfire Night party for the past 25 years.

Last night his mourning family let off fireworks as a tribute to him following his funeral at Oxford Crematorium.

About 50 people attended the fireworks at his home in Milton Crescent on November 6.

Mr Weston suffered a heart attack at the post fireworks party for family and friends. He died later at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, aged 58.

His wife Anna said: “He had set off the fireworks. Everyone was in the house singing and dancing. He loved our fireworks night, it was his favourite night of the year.

“We had started off doing it for children but just carried on after they had all grown up.”

She said her husband had not felt unwell during the day and had appeared in good spirits during the evening.

Dr Weston spent five years working as a planning officer at the Vale of White Horse District Council.

He became a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University in 1994, going on to become a principal lecturer and director of postgraduate programmes in the department of planning. In 2009 he received his PhD.

Dr Weston will also be remembered for his role in leading the Friends of the Earth campaign to re-route the M40 away from Otmoor.

Despite campaigners winning the public inquiry, the Department of Transport decided to proceed with its original route.

Campaigners then managed a scheme which saw the threatened land sold into more than 3,500 plots to delay and frustrate the Department of Transport. It eventually gave up and re-routed the M40 further east, avoiding Otmoor.

Prof Georgia Butina-Watson, head of the Oxford Brookes planning department, said: “Joe was an invaluable colleague in the department of planning.

“He will always be remembered by his colleagues, students and the planning profession at large as a passionate and dedicated academic, researcher and professional, always at the forefront of important environmental and other planning issues.

“It is in the classroom, however, that he gave his best performance as a dedicated teacher and lecturer. He changed the lives of so many students. He was unique.”

Dr Weston leaves his wife, son Michael and daughter Alice.