Annual Council (or full council part two)

Following on from the normal full council meeting was the annual council meeting, as expected despite strong opposition from both Labour and Liberal Democrat members of the Council Robin Baldry was elected as Mayor of the Borough for the forthcoming year.

One of the reasons for those concerns was around how people view the role of the mayor with many viewing the role as been ceremonial which may not suit some such as Robin who have strong political views with Cllr David Lomax of the Lib Dems even commenting that Robin would make a wonderful leader of the council due to his outspoken nature as a representative for the Conservatives.

That controversy aside we moved on to the deputy mayor, with all member present able to support Cllr Tony Bingham from Chapel as deputy mayor, and the vote of thanks for the retiring Mayor Jean Wharmby

Onward to the election of the leader and deputy leader of the council and executive next, with as predicted previously Councillor’s Tony Ashton from New Mills and Emily Thrane from Buxton taking the top two spots, with Cllr’s Tony Kemp (Buxton), John Haken (Simmondley) and Andrew Bingham (Chapel) returning to the executive been joined by Linda Baldry (Buxton) former Chair of the Social Inclusion Select Committee and current mayoress to make up the Executive.

Committee places and Chairs of Development Control, Audit and Regulatory and Licensing were elected next with very little change from last year, except for the changes in John Faulker leaving the executive and Linda Baldry joining the executive, finishing off for the evening with the co-option of two new members onto the council’s standards committee.

An unusual evening, at least in terms of the annual full council meeting where things are usually less controversial, but one which now it is over I hope that despite the controversy in which the new Mayor was appointed, all members of the council will feel able to support the role even if they don’t want to support the current occupant, and hopefully one in which the current occupant won’t fulfil the concerns that opposition members had in opposing his appointment.