The Mayor Making began in the usual way with the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers welcoming people in.
In the first half of the ceremony the outgoing Mayor, Duncan Brown, presented the Mayor’s awards. One was to Stuart Jackson a former leader of the Morris Men. Very well deserved, as were the others. Duncan has raised a record £10,000 for his charities during his year as Abingdon’s youngest ever Mayor.
But somehow all that got forgotten in what followed. There followed lots of votes.
Normally there are just a couple of votes. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are voted in unanimously. But this time everything was fought over, way past the main council committees, even down to who would represent Abingdon Town Council in outside organisations like the Prince Albert Memorial Trust and River Users Group. The Conservatives won all votes by 11-10 or 12-9 depending how the solitary Labour voter chose to go.
Sandy Lovatt, seen here on a local TV report tonight talking about the army, is the new leader of the town council. That is equivalent in town council terms to Prime Minister.
Mike Badcock is Mayor. Unusually for Abingdon, this did not go to the next person in line but to a Conservative nominee – voted in by 11-10.
Peter Jones, another Conservative, is Deputy Mayor, and was voted in 11-10.
