May 12th saw the making of a new Mayor for Cheshire East. Gordon Baxendale succeeded Cllr Margarent Simon in the position for a new year in office.
The official ceremony took place at Tatton Park in Knutsford last Wednesday.
Also welcomed was Roger West as the Deputy Mayor. Roger is from Poynton and has been involved in local politics since 2002, after a 30 year career at Astra Zeneca as a Senior Project Manager.
Jack Victor became the new Deputy Youth Mayor, and he presented the new Mayor with Cheshire East's new Coat of Arms.
Jack is 17 lives in Sandbach and studying for his A-Levels at Sandbach High School.
New Mayor of Cheshire East Gordon Baxendale has certainly packed a lot into life, and is not one to sit still for long.
Born in Yorkshire in 1940, his father was a local miIl worker and his mother a housewife. In 1958 aged 18 he joined the Royal Air Force, where he would remain for the next 14 years, flying for the last 6 years on the Argosy.
In 1974 he moved to Congleton when he met and married Felicity. The couple have two grown up sons.
His career within aviation continued after he left the Royal Air Force and he went on to work for commercial airlines as a Flight Engineer. Working for DamAir for 20 years (which was later taken over by BA) he spent almost 40 years flying in the air.
After finally getting his feet on terra firma, Gordon retired in 2005 and he was able to dedicate his time fully to the Council after tirelessly campaigning and multitasking for 9 years.
He entered local government in 1986; serving Congleton West Ward for 8 years. After a short break, he returned and was re elected in 2002 to Congleton Borough Council. He was elected to the Shadow Authority in 2008 and was Deputy Chair until it became Cheshire East in April 2009. He has spent the last year as the Deputy Mayor.
Gordon is looking forward to the new challenge and building upon the reputation and relationships faithfully maintained by the outgoing mayor Councillor Margaret Simon. He expects to be extremely busy meeting as many people as possible and raising the profile of the new Cheshire East Council.
One of Gordon’s chosen charities for his year in office is to be ABF The Soldiers Charity – a poignant reminder of his military career.
Gordon has a great love of cricket and is regularly seen in his Umpire Whites or supporting his sons who play for Congleton.
His other passion is Leeds United…well, you can take the boy out of Yorkshire...!
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