WHITCHURCH Town Councillors and staff have presented the retiring mayor, Councillor Beverly Duffy, with a cherry tree as a gift of thanks to mark the end of her term of office.

Cllr Duffy has held the position of mayor and chairman of the council since May 2019 and will retire later this month, after a period of two years.

Cllr Simon Hamlyn was elected as the deputy mayor of Whitchurch after the former deputy mayor, Cllr Terry O'Neill passed away in June 2020.

A bench in memory of Cllr O'Neill will be unveiled in Jubilee Park in the coming weeks.

Cllr Duffy thanked Cllr Hamlyn for his 'much appreciated' work and help as deputy mayor, her fellow councillors for their support during her term of office and also thanked the staff at the Civic Centre for their 'dedication' through the pandemic.

"I would like to take this opportunity to especially thank Zoë Dean, acting town clerk, and Gillian Bailey, locum support officer, for all of their hard work through what has been a very difficult time," said Cllr Duffy.

As part of her charitable work, Cllr Duffy has supported Whitchurch Girl Guiding and Whitchurch Scouts with a £500 donation towards hand washing facilities and a new disabled toilet in the Church Hall, as well as providing monetary donations for general Scouting and Guiding activities, and donations to Headway Shropshire, and Whitchurch Food Bank.

Cllr Duffy added: "I am pleased to see that whitchurch town centre has now re-opened as England continues to ease its national lockdown.

"Whitchurch Friday Market has also resumed indoors and it's great that the Civic Centre is open to the public again.

"I would like to wish all of the local pubs and restaurants well for reopening indoors from May 17 – it's been a long time coming."

Once a new town council has been elected, the council will appoint a new mayor at its annual council meeting on Thursday, May 20 from 7.15pm.

This will be the council's first face-to-face meeting in 15 months.

The annual town meeting, which is a meeting for the electorate of Whitchurch, will take place earlier on the same evening from 6pm in the main hall.

Social distancing rules will apply and the meetings will be limited to a maximum of 30 people, in line with the government's Coronavirus restrictions.

The Council's Annual Review will then be published and made available for collection at the Civic Centre, as well as online.