Published Tuesday, 7th June 2016
The new Mayor for Reigate & Banstead, Cllr David Powell, has taken up his new role and announced that his theme for his term in office is ‘Love your community’.
Cllr Powell was elected at the full Council meeting on Thursday 26 May. His Deputy Mayor for the municipal year, which runs until the end of May 2017, is Cllr Keith Foreman.
Having been Deputy Mayor last year, Cllr Powell is looking forward to his year as Mayor. “It’s a great honour and a privilege to be invited to be Mayor and I’m really looking forward to the challenge. I’m particularly looking forward to spending more time meeting people from across the borough, from young people at school to the oldest members of our community,” said the Mayor.
The Mayor’s chosen theme of ‘Love your community’ comes from his devotion to his own local community. He explained: “It’s so important that everyone plays their part. Together we can make an enormous difference to the environment we live in and the people who need support. This ethos is shown in both the charities I have chosen to support during my Mayoral year.
“I have chosen The Children’s Trust in Tadworth, who support children with brain injury and The Surrey Care Trust which provides training, learning and mentoring to support young people and adults in improving their chances in life.”
During the mayoral year, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will represent the borough of Reigate & Banstead at a range of functions, from formal receptions and official openings to visits to local community groups and clubs, as well as hosting fundraising events for their chosen charities.
Cllr Powell has been a borough councillor for Horley since 2012. He has also been a Horley Town Councillor and school governor at Horley Infants School for many more years.
Cllr Powell had a successful career in the Army. On leaving the Army he worked for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea as its Environmental Services Manager. In 1990 Cllr Powell was recruited to form the waste management company Onyx (which later became Veolia), retiring in 2000 as its MD. Mrs Powell will be supporting the Mayor behind the scenes and family friend Mrs Caroline Durance has agreed to be Mayoress for the year.
In June 2014, at the age of 78, Cllr Powell became a world record holder by being the oldest person to skydive from 30,000 feet with oxygen. Cllr Powell hopes to break his own record this year by becoming the first octogenarian to make the jump.