IT WAS decided at the meeting of Bude-Stratton Town Council’s full council that Cllr Lea Deely would sit at the helm of the table as town mayor for another year, despite some strong opposition from a few councillors.

Elections for both the mayor and deputy mayor for the municipal year 2016/17 took place at the meeting in the Parkhouse Centre, where town mayor Cllr Deely opened proceedings by saying that it had been an honour and privilege to be mayor for the year.

When it came to councillors being nominated for the role of town mayor, there were two candidates. Cllr Deely was nominated by Cllr Frank Partridge, who said he would like to see her elected again to carry on the ‘fine work’ she has done so far, especially in terms of the neighbourhood plan, devolution and the restructuring of the town council.

Cllr Julia Bryson then nominated Cllr Peter Moores who said that he was happy to stand for the role.

Town clerk Donna James organised the vote, by going around the table in alphabetical order, first asking if they were for or against Cllr Deely, and then the same was done for Cllr Moores — it is fair to say this very public way of voting was not favoured by many councillors.

The ‘for’ votes were then counted and with a score of nine votes to six, it was confirmed that Cllr Deely would be town mayor for another year.

She said: “Thank you for your confidence councillors in electing me as mayor again.”

Then it was onto the election of the deputy mayor. Despite running for town mayor Cllr Moores was not wanting to run for deputy, so the only nominee was Cllr Alan Biggs with a majority voting in favour of him taking up the position.