Second year in office for Uttoxeter mayor starts with another busy week

It was an honour to be elected as Mayor for a second term by my fellow councillors, and I am grateful to them for their unanimous support.

The deputy mayor elected this year is Zdzislaw Krupski who has been involved in many community activities such as the library gardeners and Uttoxeter in Bloom, so will bring a lot of experience to the role. Between us we could be said to cover everything from A to Z!

I’d have to admit that like most jobs it’s easier tackling things second time around, so this time I wasn’t surprised to find a stack of civic invitations and other tasks already awaiting attention.

I’d also like to hear from local charities who would like to be considered for being a Mayor’s charity this year, so if you represent a local charity and are interested please contact the town hall.

The Annual Meeting of the town council is always rather a marathon evening and this year’s meeting was no exception. Proceedings begin with the Annual Parish Meeting where members of the public are welcome to sit round the table with the town council, hear the parish report, detailing the activities of the council and mayor over the previous year, and discuss any issues which they wish to raise.

This year the public contribution came in the form of compliments on our work from a member of Uttoxeter Churches Together, a group which is kind enough to support all our meetings through the year.

Following this we have the election of mayor and deputy mayor, and the members of committees, then approval of all the council’s separate policies and procedures before we can get down to the more normal business of the meeting.

Nonetheless, we discussed a wide range of issues affecting the town, including the loss of the Mobility Link transport service, planning matters, the forthcoming Jo Cox "Big Lunch" on June 30, the Maltings and the continuing problems of vandalism in the town, on which council representatives would be attending a partnership meeting later in the week with the police, a Maltings representative and other relevant organisations.