New North Ayrshire Provost Anthea Dickson admitted it was a “tremendous “honour” to be handed the chains of office on Wednesday.
And she vowed to work hard to be the face of the community following her election at the first meeting of new-look North Ayrshire Council.
Labour stalwart John Sweeney was elected Depute Provost and she looks forward to working with him.
The Garnock Valley member was first voted in following a by-election in 2008.
She is the second female provost of the region, following on from Joan Sturgeon.
She said: “It’s a bit daunting at first when you think about taking on such a responsibility.
“But this is a tremendous honour and to have been more or less unanimously elected is a great vote of confidence from my councillors.
"This role is the face of the council. It’s been the encourager for all the people who are doing fantastic in North Ayrshire and it will be great to officially recognise some of that work.”
Added Anthea: “What I’ve found over the past 15 years is that every person who has been elected generally wants to make a difference. I will think about what our priorities are over the next few days.”
Anthea is impressed with the fact that young councillors will be involved.
She said: “We had quite a few good young members coming in which I was delighted to see because people very often complain about the wages or the fact it’s an old person’s job. So to see young blood coming in, we need that spectrum.”
The new provost would like to have more women in the council and said: “I’m disappointed there are not more women I would prefer it to be 50-50. Being a female provost hopefully I can encourage so women that will be good.”
The new provost also says she's looking forward to working with Councillor Sweeney.
She said: “I’m delighted John Sweeney has been elected as I think we will have a good balance and we have worked together very well.
“The key thing now will be matching diaries.
“The council is very balanced, we are going to see all sort of perspectives across the chamber which can only be to the good as it’s very representational.
“The privilege of being a councillor is that you get to see so many of the good things in your area that individual citizens don’t necessarily see and I wish they would see more.
“I expect I will see even more positive things through the civic role. There are lots of wonderful things going on and fabulous people working their guts out.
“If I can give them encouragement to do that and more I feel I will have served my role.”
Meanwhile leader of the council, Councillor Marie Burns paid tribute to predecessor Joe Cullinane following her re-election to the top job.
She said: “I know we’ve had our differences but I would like to thank Joe for his service, especially in the last couple of of years when it’s been challenging with Covid-19.”
Deputy leader is Irvine West Councillor Shaun Macaulay.
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