Councillor gets second chance to be Stafford's Mayor

Stafford Borough Council member Tony Nixon was chosen to be Mayor for 2020/21 a year ago – less than a month before the country went into its first national lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19.

The nation was still in lockdown when Stafford Borough’s annual Mayor Making ceremony was due to take place in May. And many other events that would have been in the civic diary were also unable to take place due to restrictions on mass gatherings.

Instead Councillor Gareth Jones, Borough Mayor for 2019/20, remained in post – but he was unable to attend events as usual from March onwards. He has continued to chair full council meetings however after they moved from the physical chamber at County Buildings to virtual sessions held on Zoom.

At Tuesday’s full council meeting Councillor Nixon was once again nominated to succeed Councillor Jones as Stafford Borough’s First Citizen.

'Honoured'

Councillor Aidan Godfrey said: “It really does give me great pleasure to propose Councillor Nixon for the office of Mayor of Stafford Borough for the ensuing municipal year.”

Councillor Nixon responded: “I would like to thank all of you for selecting me to be Mayor for the coming year. Hazel and I will be honoured to represent the borough for what we all hope will be a lot closer to a normal way of life than what we’ve been used to recently.”

Labour member Councillor Nixon won his Littleworth seat in the May 2019 borough council election – more than a decade after he previously served on the authority.

He worked at Doxey’s Universal Grinding Wheel for more than 30 years, before moving on to RAF Stafford and MOD Donnington

Councillor Peter Jones, who has served as Deputy Mayor for three successive terms, will continue in this role.