JULIE Magill, who has been a town councillor for 20 years, was made Mayor of Bishops Castle at the annual meeting of the town council with Grant Perry taking over as the new deputy mayor.

The civic parade took place on Sunday morning, meeting at the Town Hall with the town band, firefighters and others for the parade to the church for the civic service.

The council chamber was crowded with well-wishers to see the traditional Mayor Making ceremony when Cllr Magill took over the robes and chain of office from the retiring mayor, Jane Carroll.

Cllr Magill appointed her friend and work colleague Sue Salisbury as her mayor’s consort.

Giving her first address as mayor, Cllr Magill said she was proud and pleased to receive the honour and said she had first been elected to the council in 1999, serving as deputy mayor four times.

She recalled how she had marched in the town’s civic parade 50 years ago when she was in the Bishops Castle Brownie pack.

Cllr Magill thanked the Bishops Castle Drum and Bugle Band, the town crier and the mace bearers for the part they play in the civic life of the town, together with all those who organise the many local events and festivals that make the town ‘a little gem’.

“We were given our market charter in 1249 and since then we have welcomed people from all over the world. Now we need to find more people to help with this year’s carnival, which has been going for 130 years,” she added.

Cllr Magill thanked the Town Hall trustees and volunteers for their dedicated work which receives no outside funding and Nick Yaxley for winding the town clock and flying the flags.

She then paid tribute to the late Dr St John Penney, who served the town for many years as a GP, town councillor and mayor, and to Karen Corfield, the town hall markets co-ordinator who died recently.