Wilmslow Town Council has elected a new Chairman who has vowed to have 'greater engagement' with the people of Wilmslow.
Councillors voted unanimously for Keith Purdom, who represents Wilmslow West, to take over as Chairman from Jim Crockatt who led the Council for the past two years.
After taking the Chairman's declaration, Cllr Purdom addressed his fellow councillors and members of the public.
He said "Firstly I want to thank all the councillors for their support, your confidence in my ability to take this role on is very much appreciated. I regard this as a great and honour and a privilege and I'll certainly do my very best.
"The most important thing for me to say today is to thank our outgoing Chairman, many people will serve in this role in the years to come but there will only ever be one first chairman for Wilmslow Town Council.
"We owe a debt of gratitude to Cllr Crockatt, he has led the Council since before it began and he was instrumental with others I have no doubt in getting us a council for Wilmslow. He has probably led us through the most thankless period where we have been setting up an getting organised so I am probably taking over at a good time."
He added "The Council is two years old now, we had to focus on getting set up and organised. We have not been short of achievements in the time that we have been a Council but for the next year I want to focus on implementation and achievement.
"My theme for the year is greater engagement with the people who we represent. We've got some good opportunities to do that. We've got current things with the events, we had very success events last year thanks to Jo and Community & Order Committee, we've got the event on the 16th June.
"The housing has given us a great opportunity to engage with the public, sometimes quite difficult, sometimes quite controversial but I think it has given us a good opportunity to be engaged and to work with people.
"The town centre will probably come along as the next major challenge for us and that will certainly be a great opportunity for engagement. The other thing we're creating ourselves, the Youth Forum is something I am particularly excited about. We're very lucky to have a lot of stakeholder groups but most of them are nearer my age than school age so having the Youth Forum, and other initiatives we can have with the High School to get the young people engaged, is something I am enthusiastic about."
Cllr Purdom ended by saying the two things he would like people to remember from his speech are first of all "the theme of greater engagement, I want to ask all the leaders of the committees to set yourselves objectives for the year so we can measure our progress.
"I'd like to encourage the committees to set themselves testing, challenging targets - really go for it, really get some things done and achieved in the next 12 months.
"The second thing is my and all of ours appreciation for Jim. You started it, you've seen us through to this stage I am going to do my best to live up to the confidence you have put in me."
Cllr Martin Watkins, who represents the Dean Row ward, was elected as Vice-Chairman for 2013/14.
Comments
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It is without any doubt that the Residents of Wilmslow have been highly privileged to have had the benefit of the massive experience and dedication of Councillor Jim Crockatt in Chairing the setting up of Wilmslow Town Council. Thank you Jim you have given service above and beyond mere mortals.
Cllr Purdom is correct, IMO, in thinking development of Wilmslow centre will generate similar debate, based on past experience. Both of these debates are closely allied to parking and speed limits questions, something that affects every Wilmslow resident.
I hope Cllr Purdom & WTC will reveal how they can achieve 'greater engagement with the people who we represent' (all residents) asap.