Billy Drummond is elected as the new mayor by Newbury Town Council
NEWBURY has a new mayor.
Billy Drummond was officially elected at Newbury Town Council’s annual meeting on Tuesday, May 4.
He takes over from Elizabeth O’Keeffe, who held the role for the past two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After declaring his acceptance of office, Mr Drummond said it was a “great honour to be mayor of Newbury, a great town in which to live and work”.
He added: “I am very proud to have been elected by my colleagues. I am really looking forward to it and my wife Sharon is really looking forward to it.”
Mr Drummond has chosen Speakability – a local charity which helps people to recover after a stroke – as his Charity of the Year.
He has suffered two strokes himself, in 2005 and 2017, and said the charity was “a great support” to him afterwards.
He will be supported in the role by his wife Sharon, a mental health nurse, who assumes the role of lady mayoress for the year.
The couple have been married for 41 years and have three children and three grandchildren.
Mr Drummond has lived and worked in Newbury, as a head chef at Newbury Racecourse and also running a successful outside catering business, for the last 30 years.
He has represented Greenham Parish Council since 2000, and been a member of West Berkshire Council since 2003.
He has also been a governor at The Willows Primary School for 18 years, served as a trustee of St Bartholomew’s School since 2005, as a director of Greenham Business Park since 2005 and as a member of Greenham and Crookham Common Commission since 2008.
At the same meeting, Gary Norman was elected deputy mayor. Mr Norman is also a governor at St Bartholomew’s School and a volunteer at Speakability and at Eight Bells for Mental Health, as well as studying for an Open University degree in astronomy.
He said that his main passions as a councillor are mental health, youth issues, inclusivity and supporting the vulnerable, as well as the protection of Newbury’s heritage.
The annual meeting was held virtually but the town council is planning a mayor-making ceremony to take place in the Corn Exchange on Sunday, June 27 – when social distancing restrictions are expected to have eased.
