Cllr Christine James has been officially appointed as mayor of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council for the coming year.

She has taken over the post from Cllr Kate Wheller.

The new mayor used her first speech to highlight the need for more consultation over the Masterplan amongst other issues but also paid tribute to outgoing councillors and spoke of her pride in Weymouth as a town.

She said: "The recent consultation on the Town Centre Masterplan was a bit of a disappointment.

“Weymouth is a great place to live, we are lucky.”

She also spoke of the need to encourage local business.

Cllr Wheller said what a pleasure it had been to serve the borough.

She said: “What a great pleasure and a great privelige it has been to be the mayor of this borough.”

The position of deputy mayor was taken up by Cllr Richard Kosior.

The Ken Isaacs Memorial Rosebowl was presented to Weymouth Pavilion operator Phil Say for his work with the Pavilion.

The meeting also saw the appointments of the chairs and vice-chairs to several of the council’s committees. 

It was all change on the Management Committee as Labour councillors Mike Byatt and Colin Huckle were replaced as chairman and vice-chairman respectively by Conservative councillors Ian Bruce and Kevin Brookes.

Liberal Democrat councillor Gill Taylor retained her position as chairman of the Scrutiny Committee whilst Conservative Claudia Webb replaced Margaret Leicester as the vice-chairman.

Cllr Kosior was re-elected as chairman of the Policy Development Committee whilst Alison Reed replaced Ryan Hope as the vice-chairman.

The Audit Committee chairman is now Cllr Rachel Rogers with Cllr John Ellis taking up the role of vice-chairman

Cllr Mark Tewkesbury went from chairman of the Planning and Traffic Committee to vice-chairman with Cllr Wheller taking over as the new chairman

Cllr Hazel Bruce and Cllr Pamela Nixon retained their roles as chairman and vice-chairman of the Licensing Committee.