New Mayor of Hertsmere Eddie Roach took the chains of office from the outgoing Stuart Nagler at the borough council's annual meeting last Wednesday.

All 39 councillors agreed to a vote of thanks for Stuart and his wife Ros, for their hard work and energetic approach to the mayoral year.

Before he stepped down, Mr Nagler said: "It is a great honour to be mayor of this borough, and I will forever remember this year, as will Ros."

Over the past year, Mr Nagler raised more than £16,000 for his two chosen mayoral charities, Macmillan Cancer Relief and Crimebeat.

Mr Roach has been a borough councillor since the mid-1990s, when he ran as an independent candidate, campaigning to save Potters Bar Hospital. He later joined the Tory group, which took control of the council in 1999.

Before entering politics, he served in the RAF, then as a police officer, where he worked at Borehamwood police station and at New Scotland Yard's anti-corruption team. He and his wife Pamela celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year.

After accepting the chains, Mr Roach said: "I am going to have a heck of a job to follow Councillor Stuart Nagler."

He said he wanted to carry on Mr Nagler's work building links with young people, and planned to invite secondary school children to Hertsmere's monthly full council meetings.

"We have a high concentration of senior citizens in Hertsmere, but the future of the borough lies in the hands of the young," he said.

May 29, 2003 11:00