SANDBACH TOWN COUNCIL PRESS RELEASE

NEW MAYOR AND DEPUTY MAYOR FOR SANDBACH TOWN COUNCIL

Cllr Kathryn Flavell and Cllr Richard Hovey were elected as the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor at Sandbach Town Council’s Annual General Meeting.

Cllr Flavell is a Town Councillor and Cheshire East Councillor for Elworth and was the Council’s Deputy Mayor last year.

At the AGM, she thanked councillors for electing her as the next Mayor and pledged to do all she could to ‘deserve the honour’.

‘I’d like to thank the outgoing Mayor, Cllr Geraint Price Jones and his consort, Christina, for all their hard work and dedication to their roles as well as their amazing fund raising efforts. Cllr Price Jones has had the unenviable task of serving as Mayor through two years of considerable difficulty due mainly to the pandemic. Also the Council itself has experienced a period of flux with staff changes and by elections’

Cllr Flavell thanked the outgoing Mayor for handing over a ‘stable Council with a strong team of dedicated staff whom I wholeheartedly thank for their hard work and resilience’

The new mayor has selected Sandbach Animal Rescue and Cheshire Arts for Health – the Sandbach Art Room – as her two chosen charities during her term of office.

She hopes to bring her musical talents to the role adding ‘I hope we can share the commitment to, and the involvement in, the Council’s future events and activities and support each other through any difficulties that may come our way’

Cllr Richard Hovey is a Sandbach Town Councillor for Ettiley Heath and Wheelock Ward. He was the Mayor of Sandbach in 2018 and has served on the Town Council for a number of years. He was previously Chair of Haslington Parish Council. Cllr Hovey said he was looking forward to the next year and working with the mayor supporting her continuing to move Sandbach forward, in particular the Strategy for Sandbach Town Council and the next phase of the Sandbach Neighbourhood Plan.

Outgoing mayor, Cllr Price Jones, was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation for his role of Sandbach Mayor for 2 years. He has held a number of events including a charity golf day and the Mayor’s Ball at the Town Hall, raising over £3,000 for his chosen charity, the North West Air Ambulance.

The outgoing Mayor in a speech to the Council said ‘It has been an honour and an experience that I will always treasure leading this council for the last two years. I look forward to continuing my service as a councillor and hope to be as supportive to the next mayor as many of my fellow councillors have been to me over the last two years’

He paid tribute to the staff, fellow councillors and residents of Sandbach and, in particular, their experience through the pandemic

‘I would like to thank all the volunteers, the businesses and individuals who contributed to the COVID response making many people’s lives easier than they might have been while shielding or recovering from illness. It is also timely to say we all need to take a moment to remember those residents of Sandbach who were lost to the pandemic a number that unfortunately is still being added to’

Cllr Price Jones went onto acknowledge the important strategic developments which the Council now aims to drive forward and which should shape the future of the town:

‘The Council has recently launched the town’s corporate strategy consultation which will be a document that future councils will be able to add to make a living document to drive future work of the council. Finally, the complete reconstruction of the Neighbourhood plan will be required following the successful refresh of the town’s neighbourhood plan which was only officially made in 2022. We must congratulate the team especially the community volunteers.

The outgoing Mayor concluded his speech with a big thank you to his consort

‘It is now my pleasure to take this opportunity to thank my wife Christina for her support over the three years that I was deputy then mayor of Sandbach Town Council. Due to not being able to participate in the 2021 walking festival it has been a pleasure to help with the planning of the festival for 2022 that is due to start in late June this year’