BRIDPORT welcomed a new face behind the mayoral chains at the annual mayor-making ceremony in the town hall.

Cllr Ros Kayes takes on the office for the first time and is the youngest to do so in 20 years.

She was nominated by Cllr Dave Rickard who said Cllr Kayes had been helping the community ever since she arrived and especially in the last ten years since she has served on the council.

He said: "She has championed many causes and helped many people and she will continue to do so.

"She will have no problem at all in being a fantastic envoy for Bridport."

Cllr Kayes said it was an honour and a privilege to be mayor.

She said she planned to celebrate the town but also to highlight the challenges ahead.

She said: "This is a most difficult time for all of us to be in local government with cuts to public services, an affordable housing crisis, the loss of public transport, threats to our youth centre, even threats to public toilets.

"So I really want to use this year to highlight first of all how great this community is but also to highlight our need to pull together. We have never needed to pull together so hard in this town probably since the Second World War.

She said she also wanted to use the year to highlight the unsung heroes in the town - the ones who run community groups, take meals to the elderly, volunteer at the Citizens' Advice Bureau and drive people to hospital.

She said: "They are even more important than those of us who are in elected office because they are the mechanism that makes the clock tick and without them we wouldn't have the Bridport that we have and that we love so much."

She also pledged to make sure the 'natives' of the town were heard.

"We must always remember that the people made Bridport what it is are not necessarily people who moved in since the 1980s.

"The people created the character of this town - its dry sense of humour, its warmth, its very laid back attitude to life, its conviviality, its bluntness and its bolishiness are the people who were here before.

"That's why when we address changes in the town we really need to make sure those people have a voice."

Cllr Kayes also said she'd be supporting two local charities currently being set up - one was the BridportYouth and Community Trust to save the youth centre and a community bus scheme.

She added that in her 'real' job as a psychotherapist she saw a great deal of depression and stress because of the grind of people's daily lives.

"I am particularly worried about the mental health of children. In any classroom at least three children will be suffering from mental health problems. That's a real indictment of our society - a society that says we can all get whatever we want and then it makes us feel inadequate when we don't get it.

"I want to celebrate the non commercial world of community, compassion, understanding and support for the vulnerable and I hope those will very much be the values of my mayoral year.

"We are fortunate to live in a town which is inclusive and passionate as well as hugely democratic."

Cllr Anne Rickard was sworn in as deputy mayor and Cllr Sarah Williams was once again voted in as leader of the council.

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

NEW TEAM: Bridport Town Council leader Sarah Williams, Mayor Ros Kayes and deputy Mayor Anne Rickard