Paul Ing elected as Barnard Castle mayor for third time

Barnard Castle councillor Paul Ing has been elected mayor of the town for a third consecutive term.

A town council majority voted for Cllr Ing on Monday ahead of Cllr Chris Foote-Wood who was also nominated.

Cllr Rima Chatterjee was elected unchallenged as deputy mayor.

In an annual review the council heard the mayor attended 15 events in the past year, including celebrations such as the annual Meet festivity, Christmas Lights switch-on and Bonfire Night, commemoration events such as Remembrance Day, Teesdale Aviation Day and Merchant Navy Day and community events such as the inaugural Parkrun and a bowls club presentation.

The most recent event attended by Cllr Ing was at Green Lane Nursery in March when a new garden was opened and an outstanding Ofsted inspection celebrated.

Cllr Ing said: “It was a pretty busy year meeting people and being there.

“One of my favourites was at Green Lane Nursery, it was fantastic to support that.

“I look forward to the coming year going to support local businesses and charities and anything else that needs to be done.”

The council noted that Cllr Chatterjee had also attended events on behalf of the mayor.

Elected to chair various council committees were Cllr Chatterjee (Partnerships), Cllr David Hand (Planning), Cllr Ian Kirkbride (Resources), and Cllr Fiona Turnbull (Services).

Explaining a review of the restructure of the committees, clerk to the council Martin Clark said: “Now we have a full council.

“We haven’t been a full council in the six years that I have been here, and the committees haven’t been filled in the way they needed to be filled.

He added that the restructure ensured there were six members on each committee, with each member sitting on at least two committees.

However, Cllr Foote-Wood expressed disappointment in not being included on the partnerships committee.

He said: “The fact that I am involved in a number of organisations means I can make my best contribution there.

“I definitely do not want to be on the planning committee, and I withdraw my name from the planning committee.”

Mr Clark responded: “There is nothing preventing you, as a member of the council, attending the partnerships committee.”

He added there had been a number of times that the planning committee had failed to meet quorum in the past because the minimum of three members had not arrived at meetings.

The mayor agreed to join the planning committee in place of Cllr Foote-Wood.