The annual Mayor Making ceremony took place last night at Calne Town Hall as the mayoral year came to an end for Cllr Robert MacNaughton.
Cllr Jon Fisher was proposed as Calne Town Mayor by Cllr Martin, seconded by Cllr Conway and elected by fellow councillors. He becomes the first Labour mayor to serve Calne for 23 years.
Cllr Fisher announced his mayoral consort will be his wife Tara and his chosen charity for the year will be the Calne Town Charity.
He told us: "My plan is to try and use the town mayor's influence, which is really the only power the role has, to bring key decision makers together to look at the future of our town centre.
"I also want to support a governance review of the town council and I want to use my time in office to celebrate the amazing public service of some of my predecessors."
In his acceptance speech Mayor Fisher outlined his priorities for the coming year which were a governance review. He added: "I’ll support the Governance and Policy Working Group to review what is working well and to identify areas where we as a council need further improvement, so we can truly meet the ambitions our town has.
"This also gives us some space as a council to look at questions we otherwise don’t ever address – prime amongst these, what do we want from a mayor and deputy mayor in the 21st Century - how can a mayor not just promote business, but actually use their influence to aid economic growth?
"Those of us who live in Calne will recognise that our town centre needs some love. I plan to use the position of mayor and the influence it has to bring key stakeholders together to start a conversation about town centre redevelopment. This won’t happen overnight, but we are a growing and ambitious town – our infrastructure needs to catch up."
Mayor Fisher also spoke of his plans to honour the service and memory of some of the town's former mayors. In particular, the late Cllr Tony Trotman who served as Calne Mayor four times and Cllr Edith Spackman who was the town's first female mayor in 1937.
On the subject of his chosen charity - Calne Town Charity he added: "There are lots of charities and
community groups doing work they can be rightly proud of here in Calne, in fact I think it may be the thing we can be most proud of – but the Calne Town Charity is one that needs some focus at present.
"We have, as a council, put significant sums aside to help those in hardship during the cost of living crisis. That isn’t sustainable in the long term, so we need to support the Calne Town Charity so that next time, the charity can step into the breach instead of the council."
He closed his speech by thanking outgoing Mayor, Robert MacNaughton.
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