RESIDENTS across Dorset are being invited to attend the borough council’s mayor-making ceremony next week.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s annual council meeting and mayor-making ceremony will take place on Thursday, May 21.

Both the meeting and the ceremony will be held in the Ocean Room at Weymouth Pavilion.

The ceremony starts promptly at 7pm, so guests are asked to be seated by 6.50pm.

Cllr Kate Wheller will complete her term as the mayor of Weymouth and Portland and it is anticipated that Cllr Christine James is the Mayor Elect.

Chair and vice-chair for each of the council’s committees will also be appointed during the meeting.

Cllr Wheller took over as mayor from Ray Banham last year, who served for 15 years on the council before losing his Melcombe Regis seat to the borough's first UKIP councillor Francis Drake.

Last year’s mayor-making ceremony was overshadowed by a stinging attack on the council merger by Mr Banham.

He claimed the borough council was ‘losing its identity’ because of the merger between Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and West Dorset District Council.