New Scarborough Mayor sworn in
The Borough Council met in person...
Last updated 20th May 2021
The new Mayor of Scarborough has been officially sworn in today at a special socially distanced council meeting.
Labour councillor Eric Broadbent took over the chains of office from Conservative Hazel Lynskey, who had held the title for the last two years due to the pandemic.
The Annual Meeting of the council was moved from the Town Hall to Scarborough Spa to ensure that the councillors could maintain social distancing.
Cllr Broadbent, who has been a councillor on the authority for 30 years, will be donning the Mayor’s robes for the second time having served as the Borough’s First Citizen in 2004/5.
After taking office, Cllr Broadbent said: “I am incredibly honoured and proud to become the Mayor of the Borough of Scarborough for the second time and I once again pledge to do my best to uphold the tradition of the role.”
Cllr Broadbent said he aimed to visit and thank all of those who had worked and volunteered tirelessly in the borough during the pandemic and his theme for the year would be “supporting community kindness.”
Cllr Broadbent also told the meeting about his own brush with Covid-19 having been admitted to Scarborough Hospital on New Year’s Eve after contracting the virus, an experience he called “humbling”.
At the same meeting Yorkshire Coast Independents Alliance member Roxanne Murphy was voted in as Deputy Mayor for the coming year, replacing Conservative Roberta Swiers.
It was the first in-person meeting of Scarborough Council since the first lockdown was implemented in March last year.
Outgoing Mayor Cllr Lynskey told the assembled councillors of the lessons she had learned from being in office during the pandemic.
She also told councillors there was much for the authority to achieve in the next two years before the council was scrapped as part of the government’s Local Government Reorganisation proposals.
Cllr Lynskey said: “If we can learn anything from this pandemic I would ask you to think about what is important.
“Power and position is not important, writing on social media is not important, material things are not important.
“What is important is family, friends, tolerance, consideration and to learn to work together.
“We have two more years of Scarborough Borough Council, I don’t know what is going to happen with the change over and I don’t think any of us do, but what we need to do is to make sure in these two years that we do everything we can to make the borough a better place.”