West Berkshire Council has a new chairman.

West Berkshire Council has a new chairman.

Liberal Democrat Tony Vickers took over last night (Thursday) at the annual council meeting from Billy Drummond.

The chairman of the council has both a civic and a council role.

This includes representing the whole council during their term of office and being an ambassador for the district, attending civic and ceremonial functions as the district’s first citizen.

“It is a huge honour to be appointed chairman of council,” Mr Vickers told the council meeting in Newbury.

“However my first duty is to thank the outgoing chairman, on your behalf, for everything he has done in the past year.

“He has continued to raise the profile of this council in numerous ways and he has fitted the part extremely well at numerous events.

“He’s been so dedicated he’s hardly given me a look in.”

Mr Vickers has been a councillor for 30 years. He now represents Hungerford and Kintbury ward. He views the role as important as the leader of the council.

“Important not just because I might occasionally be able to silence the leader – simply by standing up! But because it is apolitical,” he explains.

“Although I remain a Liberal Democrat – as I did for 20 years as a serving Army officer – being chairman is not about making those difficult policy decisions or spending priorities.

“On our council crest is written ‘Forward Together’. Where to? Towards our future of course. But what sort of future?

“We live in probably the most worrying time of all our lives. It is really hard to have faith in the future. But my theme for this year is just that: ‘Have Faith in Our Future’.

“I want to showcase some of the great things that are being done in our lovely district – most of it a National Landscape, the North Wessex Downs.

“Surely we all want the future for our children and grandchildren to be as safe, prosperous, healthy and enjoyable as it has been for us.”

He says he is keen to hear about and celebrate things that help achieve sustainability – in the social, economic and environmental sense.

“I have three specific strands to my year as chairman that fit the theme,” he says.

“The first runs right through the year and I want to reach every parish – they don’t have a mayor to help them celebrate.

“But that doesn’t exclude towns, just that they do have mayors and parishes don’t.

“I’m an outdoorsy sort of person – I like to ramble a lot. So an element of every event should preferably involve a walk.”

He also wants to resurrect the award for excellence in new development that was first established by Garry Poulson in 1996 when he was mayor of Newbury.

“The Newbury Society has now agreed, in principle, to fully underwrite an Architectural Design Award Scheme in partnership with this council but fully funded by the society, as a charity which exists to promote excellence in – and educate about – our local built environment,” he says.

“I hope the first awards will be made before the end of this council year.”

He also wants to promote a relatively new charity in his ward.

“It helps – as its name ‘Good Hope Farm’ implies – some of those ‘left behind’,” he says. “It allows some of our young adults with special needs – who they call farmers – and their carers to have outdoor supervised simple work.

“Everyone can contribute in a way to society – even if it is only by giving the joy of volunteering opportunities to others.”