After a delayed start to the mayoral year, Monmouth Town Council elected a new mayor at Monday night’s annual general meeting.

The 14 members of the town council were welcomed by the outgoing chair, Terry Christopher, via a zoom link as he was unable to attend due to a pre-planned holiday.

His tenure was due to end on 18th of May, but due to a lack of interest following the call for nominations for town council after the boundary review, the council was unable to operate until a second call for nominations saw numbers rise to a legally acceptable figure.

Terry’s last duty was to ask for a proposal for a new chairperson for 2022-23. This position also makes the councillor mayor for the next 11 months along with the ceremonial trappings that accompany the office.

Cllr David Evans (Wyesham) proposed Cllr Alice Fletcher (Wyesham) for the role.

Cllr Abbie Katsande (Town) nominated herself. After both proposals achieved seconders, a vote was taken and Cllr Fletcher was elected chair.

Councillor Fletcher and Town Clerk Caitlin Williams then retired to the Mayor’s Parlour to be ‘gowned’ by Macebearer Caroline Bright and returned to the meeting to elect a vice chairman.

On returning, she declared her husband, Peter Fletcher, to be her consort for the coming year and said this term was going to be a difficult one. “We had a couple of years of hardship but hopefully we can now move forward” She added that the council now has “a very diverse team” and everyone has the same agenda which is “working for Monmouth.

“I’m looking forward to working with each and every one of you and we can all now work as a team”.

Asking for nominations for vice chair, proposals were received for Cllr Tom Kirton, Cllr Martyn Ford and Cllr Abbie Katsande. With no seconder for Cllr Ford, it was just two options available with Kirton winning the vote.

Cllr Fletcher was first elected to the town council in 2017 under the Indy banner: she was Alice Legg then.

She quit the Indys a few years later to stand on a Labour ticket and continued to represent the Drybridge ward alongside Felicity Cotton and Matt Feakins.

Her father-in-law, the late John Fletcher, was the well-respected councillor for the Overmonnow ward.

It is believed she is the first diagnosed autistic mayor of Monmouth.

Tom Kirton was mayor of Chepstow for three years from 2019 to 2022 and was a town councillor in Chepstow for 15 years serving the Thornwell ward. He now sits in the Dingestow ward of Mitchel Troy Community Council.

The meeting continued with the process of filling the remaining five vacant seats by the co-option process. Names should be submitted to the town clerk by July 1 and the process of co-opting for the vacant seats will take place on July 4. The town clerk said that the method of co-option is “advised” by Monmouthshire County Council “so we have a council of 19 and not a council of 14 and ensure that the whole electorate is represented properly”.