NEWBURY HAS A NEW MAYOR FOR 2022

Newbury Town Council’s annual Mayor Making ceremony took place on Sunday 15 May 2022.

The event celebrated the election of the new Mayor, Cllr Gary Norman & new Deputy Mayor, Cllr Nigel Foot for the municipal year 2022/23 in front of local dignitaries, organisations and their friends and family.

The ceremony took place at the Newbury Corn Exchange, with over 250 guests in attendance. The Town Council, along with the Town Marshal and Macebearers, processed through the Market Place to the Corn Exchange to start the ceremony. Following the ceremony, a civic service was held at St Nicolas Church with refreshments in the Church Hall afterwards.

Highlights from the event included a speech from the outgoing Mayor, Cllr Billy Drummond, who shared his most memorable moments from his year as Mayor of Newbury; long service awards to Cllrs Roger Hunneman, Elizabeth O’Keeffe and Phil Barnett were given for 10 years of service as Councillors and to Cllr Martha Vickers for 20 years’ service. A special award was given to outgoing Macebearer, Rod Thomason, for 28 years’ service as a Town Macebearer.                                                                           

Cllr Martin Colston and Cllr Vaughan Miller expressed their delight of proposing Cllr Gary Norman as the Mayor of Newbury for the municipal year 2022/23.

Looking forward to the year ahead in office and that his chosen charities would be Newbury Speakability and Eight Bells for Mental Health.

After declaring his acceptance of office, Cllr Norman said, “It’s a great honour for me to take on the role of Mayor of Newbury, a great town in which to live and work”.  The new Mayor was invested by receiving the chain and badge of office. The Mayor also formally invested his wife, Sabrina Chetcuti, as his Mayoress.

Cllr Nigel Foot was invested as Deputy Mayor of Newbury and is looking forward to supporting the Mayor over the course of the year.  Musical accompaniment to the ceremony was provided by VoxFresh and by a selection of musicians from St Bartholomew’s Senior Band.

A Civic Service followed in the Corn Exchange lead by Revd. Will Hunter Smart and the Mayor’s newly appointed chaplain, Revd. Gary Collins.