NEW mayors were elected to serve Oakham and Uppingham on Wednesday.
Mark Woodcock, 47, succeeds Jim Harrison as mayor of Oakham and Karen Senogles, 48, takes over the top slot from Colin Forsyth in Uppingham.
Mr Woodcock said: "It is an honour to be chairman of the town council and mayor of Oakham. I think there wil
l be some awkward and difficult times but I am certainly looking foward to it."
Mr Woodcock moved to Rutland 12 years ago to take up a job as a prison officer at Ashwell Prison. Married to Jayne, an NHS manager, they have two sons – Jake, 15 a pupil at Vale of Catmose College and Elliot, 17, a pupil at The Rutland College.
A member of Oakham Town Council for four years, Mr Woodock said: "I want to get projects already started, finished, and upgrade amenities in the town. Simple things like park benches and bus shelters that we use every day are important. Toilets are a big issue, they need to be finished."
Karen Senogles, 48, moved to Uppingham five years ago with her husband Chris when they bought Uppingham Carpet Company in High Street East.
The couple have two children, Thomas, 19, who is studying at Lincoln University and Gregory, 16, a pupil at Leicester Grammar School.
London-born Karen is a probation officer who works part time doing sessional work at Leicester Magistrates Court.
She said: "I think we are doing quite well as a town council and I don't want to change that in any way, but obviously I will respond to anything that comes along in the future.
"I am delighted to be mayor. It is a great honour and I hope I can do as good a job as Colin Forsyth."
Jan Fillingham is the new deputy mayor of Oakham and Peter Rees is Uppingham's deputy mayor.
The full article contains 317 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
