A BELL Hill councillor who visited Petersfield as a child to see his grandparents more than 40 years ago says he never envisaged being elected mayor of the town.
Petersfield Mayor for the coming year Jamie Matthews was elected in May by fellow town councillors at the annual mayor making ceremony in the council chamber of the Town Hall.
He was nominated after sterling work on the Petersfield Neighbourhood Plan steering group, which he joined in 2012.
He remained a member of the steering group until the plan’s adoption in November 2015; the steering group then disbanded.
Mr Matthews was elected to Petersfield Town Council in May 2015, and for the past year he was chairman of the council’s grounds committee, which manages open space across the town.
During the year he also served on several other town council committees.
The independent councillor for Bell Hill said: “Petersfield has had a mayor, on and off, for nearly 400 years, so it’s a great honour to be selected to serve in this role.
“I first visited Petersfield in the early 1980s, as my grandparents lived in the town.
“Neither they, nor I, would have envisaged that nearly 40 years later I would have the opportunity to serve as mayor.
“I am very much looking forward to the year ahead. Petersfield has so much going on with a huge variety of business and community organisations that we are very lucky to have.
“I look forward to visiting many of them during my year in office.”
Mayors serve for a year, and each one nominates charities they wish to raise money for.
Cllr Matthews says he will be raising money for the Salvation Army Christmas Parcel Appeal and Dementia Friendly Petersfield.
Jamie, a member of Petersfield Round Table, has lived in Petersfield since 2006 with his wife Melissa and their young son.
He is a Broadcast Technology Consultant and is currently working on a large national infrastructure project.
His deputy mayor for the coming year is the veteran town and East Hampshire District Council councillor, Hilary Ayre.