HIllis is new Mayor

Cllr Hillis was voted into the post at last night (Monday's) Annual General Meeting of Coleraine Borough Council.

Deputy Mayor for the incoming year is DUP councillor Sam Cole from Garvagh. Both posts were allocated according to the d'Hondt system of allocating positions and committee memberships.

Handing over the chain of office, outgoing Mayor councillor Sandy Gilkinson reflected on his past year as First Citizen.

"During the last year I attended 352 official duties as Mayor and another third of unofficial duties and met people from all cultures. I left off my political hat and tried to be a Mayor for everyone.

"There wasn't a day I didn't enjoy," he said, also paying tribute to his wife Betty and the councillors and staff of Coleraine Council for their support.

Congratulating Cllr Hillis on his appointment, Cllr Gilkinson wished him God's blessing in his year ahead.

Outgoing Deputy Mayor Cllr WIlliam King expressed his pleasure at being "sweeper up" to the Mayor during the year and said that he believed they had worked well as a partnership.

Congratulations were passed on to the new Mayor, Cllr Hillis, by representatives of all the political parties in the Chamber.

Taking the chair as the new Mayor, Cllr Hillis thanked his party colleagues for nomianting his to the post.

He said that this was the time to provide civic leadership to keep the Borough on the path of progress both economically and in comunity llife.

He also said that he would be a Mayor for all the people of the Borough and said it was a "privilege" to accept the position.

He said that it was an unsatisfactory time for local councils given the uncertainty of RPA and pledged to work to further develop the economic life of the Borough.

There were other elections on the evening with DUP councillor Maurice Bradley taking up the post of chairman of Leisure and Environment Committee; DUP alderman James McClure becoming chair of the Planning Committee and UUP councillor Robert McPherson elected as chair of the Policy and Development Committee.

SDLP alderman Maura Hickey, however, asked what kind of message this was sending out about Coleraine Council when there were no nationalist or "others" being voted in.

"In 40 years of Coleraine Borough Council there has been one nationalist Mayor," she said.

Cllr Timothy Deans slammed Alderman Hickey and asked why she was complaining about the system now when the SDLP had voted in favour of d'Hondt?

"This is the annual SDLP sham fight. I thought Cllr Dallat had left the Chamber but I see he is double-jobbing writing speeches for Alderman Hickey to read out," he said.