In his first ever blog Winston Brown analyses the opening two months of the new-look Market Drayton Town Council.
This Tuesday marks the end of the second month in office for Market Drayton’s not-so-new mayor Councillor Roy Aldcroft.
It was always going to be the case that his approach to the job of holding the town’s highest civic honour would be very different from his predecessor Councillor Rob Bentley.
His man-of-the-people outlook on being mayor fitted in well during an action-packed year which included the Carnival, Royal Irish Regiment Welcome Home from Afghanistan parade and the Festival of Lights.
Of course, Councillor Aldcroft became mayor in May with plenty of experience, having been deputy mayor for the previous 12 months and Market Drayton Chamber of Trade chairman for three years.
But his pledge to be a champion for voluntary groups in the town has quickly been overtaken by the far more pressing need of becoming a spokesman on what direction Market Drayton needs to take in the future.
In his first two months, Councillor Aldcroft has made public appearances at the Muller 10k Road Race, Royal British Legion parade and Market Drayton Lions’ Fun Day.
This has been combined with paying tribute to late Drayton newsagent Kent Waghorn, vandalism at the Grotto Road play area and most recently, the demise of Butters Coaches.
In theory, Market Drayton’s mayor has two roles as both chairman of the town council and civic figurehead for the town itself.
Inside the town hall, Councillor Aldcroft has shown himself to be unafraid of adopting a strong-handed, even confrontational approach to getting business done.
This has led to some fiery exchanges at council meetings and questions by one or two colleagues as to whether a more pragmatic approach is needed.
However, Market Drayton residents have far more important things to consider than giving out ratings on how each and every mayor has done his or her job.
Some, like the late and highly-regarded Bert Smith, earned a reputation for being people of action who put the best interests of the town at the forefront of everything they did.
The mayor has an opportunity to help plot a course along which the whole town can agree to go and even though his powers of making things happen are limited to what the whole town council decides, the mayor can still be far more than a man with a chain round his neck.
The early signs are that Councillor Aldcroft intends to be something more than that and it may well be the case that a ’something-more-than-that’ mayor is exactly what Market Drayton needs right now.
Winston Brown will be writing a blog published on the first Mondy of every month at www.marketdraytonadvertiser.com.
