THE new Mayor of Andover has set out his ambitions after being elected into the role by fellow councillors. 

Cllr Robin Hughes was elected as the new mayor during a meeting of Andover Town Council on Wednesday, May 17. He replaces David Coole.

Cllr Jason Sangster has been named the deputy mayor. He replaces Cllr Rebecca Meyer.

Both Cllr Hughes and Cllr Sangster are from the Liberal Democrats party.

The Andover Town Council has 16 members – 10 Lib Dems and six independents.

In the mayor election, independent councillor Heather Neate was nominated to stand against Cllr Hughes.

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Cllr Hughes won with eight votes, while Cllr Neate got six votes. Two LibDem councillors were absent from the meeting.

It was a repeat for the deputy mayor election as Cllr Neate was nominated again to stand against Cllr Sangster.

Cllr Sangster received eight votes, while Cllr Neate got six votes.

After being elected mayor, Cllr Hughes said: "I would like to thank the councillors for electing me to this prestigious office. I take it very seriously.

"I know some people have doubts about how much a councillor can do, but in my past I was a borough councillor and I was also a county councillor.

"I hope to work with everybody equally. We all came here by exactly the same route. Nobody is any higher or any lower than anybody else. The electorate voted for us and they voted for people with parties and people not at parties. And that's the system that we all go by. It's called our democracy. So I hope over the next few months we will be able to build on that and make this very first meeting of this new council a new beginning for Andover in the town council."

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Cllr Hughes also thanked the retiring mayor David Coole in his opening speech.

He said: "Over the last four years, the councillors have not always seen eye to eye. But I shouldn't distract from respecting his efforts and diligence in the works he did.

"There were several meetings that I attended where there were several paperworks had to be gone through and I don't know how many hours he must have spent reading them from cover to cover to ensure that every single t was crossed.

"I’m very grateful for that because I think in the long term it makes everybody's life easier if you have policies and documents properly understood.

"I know he’s continuing with Andover CIC, which he handles with a passion to ensure that Andover gets the best it can. So I wish him good luck and every success in the new beginning."