At the delayed annual meeting of Bridgwater Town Council last night, Hamp Councillor Leigh Redman, was elected as Mayor of Bridgwater. The event was held on Zoom. It will be Councillor Redman’s second term as Mayor. He takes over from Cllr Tony Heywood, now the town’s second longest consecutively serving Mayor, his terms being extended to 18 months due to the Covid lockdown in the middle of his Mayoralty. The longest serving consecutive Mayor of Bridgwater was recently deceased Cllr Adrian Moore who served 2 years to tide the council over from it’s former existence as ‘Charter Trustees’ to ‘Town Council’ in 2002-2004. Cllr Liz Leavy (Hamp) was elected as Deputy Mayor and by convention will take over upon completion of the current Mayor’s term of office.

Opening the meeting Leigh Redman said “Thank you for the privilege of being your Mayor again. I want to take a moment to thank Cllr Heywood, Tony thank you for your efforts in these unprecedented times, this pandemic has been horrible for everyone in Bridgwater.

I know Tony was keen to do so much more.  He planned a memory walk for Dementia charities, I have given my undertaking to ensure we complete this as soon as it is safe to do so.

Tony, I want to thank you on behalf of the town council for your time as our Mayor, you may not have been able to do everything you had wanted, but in those events you have been able to do, you have made an impact. Tony you have been an amazing Chair of council and Bridgwater town mayor, thank you.

Going forward for the first period as your Mayor, I have chosen not to have a named charity, any donations or money raised will go to support local Covid groups.

We will try to hold a more formal Mayor making event next year, this will be a chance to celebrate Cllr Heywood’s term and look forward, I will try to be seen supporting our town and the business in it, my first event is already in the calendar, the chance to judge the Christmas windows in our town shops is always an enjoyable event, with no official turn on of the Christmas lights our snow flake event has had to be cancelled.

As we come to the end of Lockdown-2 I will ask anyone that can, to shop local, our businesses have been impacted as have we all by this horrible disease.

Lets look forward to a better future, we have already seen how the community of Bridgwater has stepped up, the amazing work our volunteers have done and continue to do is wonderful.

Bridgwater town council has done its part, the walk-through test centre is working well at the town hall and helping reduce the need to travel for testing, now is a time for unity, I am so proud of Bridgwater and the people in every part of our community, please volunteer if you can.

Please stay safe and follow the safety guidance, so that we can all play a part in ending Corona virus.

Thank you.”

Leigh Redman and other Bridgwater mayor’s can be found here.

Biography of;-

Cllr Redman here

Cllr Leavy here 

Cllr Heywood here 

Tony Heywood’s 18 months in office in pictures