Frome welcomes new mayor and council chair

Frome has appointed a new mayor and chair of the town council following its annual meeting, with Cllr Anita Collier returning to the role of mayor and Cllr Fiona Barrows appointed as chair.

Cllr Collier, who previously served as mayor during the 2020 lockdown, will once again take on the civic role, while Cllr Barrows will lead the council and chair meetings. Both were appointed at the annual town council meeting held on Wednesday 23rd May.

Cllr Collier has been a town councillor since 2019, representing the Berkley Down area. She said she is looking forward to prioritising young people in her second term as mayor as she takes over from outgoing mayor Cllr Andy Jones.

“I cannot wait to meet as many people, groups and businesses as possible throughout my year and, although I’m interested in everything that happens in the town I will be prioritising young people as my focus for the next 12 months,” she said. “They have so much to offer so I’m looking forward to hearing their voices.”

£15,000 allowance

As chair, Cllr Barrows will take a leading role in the council’s strategic direction. For the first time, councillors agreed to award the chair a £15,000 annual allowance to cover lost earnings, as the role is estimated to require 2.5 days of work per week.

All councillors currently receive an annual allowance of £1,291, but the new arrangement aims to make the leadership role more accessible to people from different financial backgrounds.

Due to legal advice around the size of the allowance, the council must refer to the mayor and chair formally as ‘deputy chair’ and ‘chair’, meaning there was no official handover of the mayoralty at the meeting.

Cllr Barrows said in her speech, “Until recently I never imagined myself in this position. Not only because I doubted myself and my abilities, but because I knew my financial situation would make it too difficult to fulfil this role.

“You haven’t just voted me in; you have also created the conditions that allow me to take on this role and hopefully do it justice.”

Cllr Anne Hills, a former council leader, said the allowance was fair given the demands of the position.

Cllr Nick Dove added, “I still think we should focus on the idea that that is what the allowance was created for. It was created to ‘allow’ other people who might not be able to consider it to do so.”

The money will come from general reserves, and councillors stressed that the role remains unpaid in terms of salary.

Cllr Max Wide said, “It was really clear in our conversations that both Fiona wanted to be leader of the council and we wanted her to be leader of the council.

“We are not, as far as I am concerned, establishing a paid chair post… this is about enabling somebody to do something that otherwise would not be possible. We are doing this for this year to enable a particular individual to do it. We are not saying there is a leader of the council post.”

Pictured: l-r: New mayor Cllr Anita Collier with new chair, Cllr Fiona Barrows