Frodsham Town Council Policy, Process and Revenue Committee have been considering a change to the current selection process for the Town Mayor.

At present, the Town Mayor is appointed according to seniority, that is, the number of years a councillor has served, either from the date that they were elected to the Council or the date of their last been made Mayor.

Under this system, Frodsham's current Mayor Cllr Caroline Ashton will be succeeded by Cllr Judith Critchley, followed by Cllr Donna Critchley and then Cllr Mark Nield.

At a Policy, Process and Revenue Committee meeting on Monday (26 April), Cllr Ryan McKeown proposed that Councillors review that system, as well as considering a merger of the Mayor and the Chair position.

"I've not worked on councils before where there is both a Mayor and a Chair role and I've never really understood why," he said. "We've got a Chairman, a Mayor and a Deputy Mayor; it seems a bit top-heavy."

"I think the process of going by seniority rather than [an election] is a little dated."

Cllr McKeown also suggested that the Town Council might Cllr Ashton, who was appointed as Mayor during the first coronavirus lockdown, the opportunity to serve another year in the post, to have the chance to carry out some of the civic duties that were made impossible by the pandemic.

Cllr Ashton replied: "I will go with whatever my fellow Councillors think is the right thing to do for Frodsham Town Council."

In response to the call to review the current appointments system, Cllr Judith Critchley said: "seniority takes away any animosity [that might arise] because it's out of our hands.

On the subject of combining the Mayor and Chair roles, Cllr Critchley added: "One of the reasons that the roles were split was that there are people who might want to be Mayor but not Chair and vice versa, or people who have a busy life and don't feel that they can do both at once.

"The Chair is obviously elected every year, so it would be up to them whether they wanted to be Mayor or not. Because being Mayor is an entirely civic role, not a Council role, it gives every Councillor an opportunity to be Mayor if they want to be.

"It doesn't cost the Council anything and it doesn't interfere with Council business."

Cllr Ashton argued that "there is a crossover" between the roles of Chair and Mayor, adding: "that's why [combining] the Chair and Mayor roles would be good because you would know what was going on. There's no continuity in the isolation of the civic-only role."

The proposal will now be put to Full Council in May.

In September, Frodsham Town Council will also invite Frodsham CE Primary School to nominate pupils to fulfil the role of Junior Mayors for the year 2021/2