New Mayor for Southend-on-Sea

May 20, 2021

The 100^th Mayor of Southend-on-Sea has taken the chains as Cllr Margaret Borton was inaugurated as first citizen of the Borough.

The annual Mayor Making ceremony took place on Thursday 20 May, attended by a small number of council officials, family members and friends, and live streamed to the public, due to Covid-19 health and safety measures.

In her acceptance speech, Cllr Borton thanked outgoing Mayor, Cllr John Lamb and his wife Pat, and explained her great admiration and pleasure at being elected to the role of Mayor. She also congratulated Cllr Kevin Robinson for being elected as Deputy Mayor and Debbie Robinson as Deputy Mayoress.

She said: “I would like to thank you all for being here today on this special occasion whether you are here physically or watching this ceremony virtually. I am privileged to be in the position of being the 100th Mayor of Southend.

“I am immensely proud to have been elected as your Mayor and will do my very best to uphold the fine traditions of the Mayoralty of Southend on Sea and be an effective ambassador for the Borough.

“Reverend Paul Mackay of St Mary’s Church, Prittlewell has graciously agreed to be my Chaplain for my mayoral year. My thanks to him and his team for allowing us the honour of using St Mary’s as the Civic Church for the year.

“My chosen charities for my Mayoral year are Little Heroes ASD Support group and Trust Links. I will also be championing the Southend Emergency Fund which was set up in response to the Covid pandemic.”

Cllr John Lamb, the outgoing Mayor, also looked backed on a successful two years as Mayor, with former councillor, Mark Flewitt serving as his deputy.

He said: “What a period we have had, with such a dramatic change brought about by the Coronavirus back in 2020, which caused myself to remain Southend’s 99^th Mayor until today; what an honour this has been to both myself and the Mayoress.

“In the first year my chosen charity, being a sailor and a lover of the sea, was Southend Lifeboat Station, one of the busiest stations in the Country. The Covid-19 pandemic unfortunately impacted on all social, work and charity events but we still achieved a total of £21,000, to which I thank all those who supported the charity events.

“In my second year, I decided to help a new Southend charity helping men with prostate cancer to be identified sooner, and receive less intrusive treatment much earlier creating a much earlier remission. So far we have raised over £3,000 and fund raising continues and hopefully we can increase that amount to at least £7-10,000; all contributions are gratefully received.

“During my Mayoralty I have carried out 376 official engagements which included 278 Events in support of charities, Veterans Organisations, and Faith Groups.

“My wife and I feel very proud to have represented our town and we have tried to ensure that we set an example to all our citizens of all cultures and backgrounds and been respectful of their beliefs and religions and we wish the new Mayor every success during her Mayoralty.”

Councillor Borton biography:

Councillor Borton has been a councillor for Victoria Ward for over 15 years and is also a school governor at Milton Hall School.

She is the 100^th person to be inaugurated as the Worshipful the Mayor of Southend-on-Sea.

She attended at Guardian Angels Primary School in Mile End, and at secondary level was educated at Cardinal Griffin secondary modern school in Poplar. After leaving school, she joined the Dept of Social Security, now the DWP and worked at their Stepney office. Cllr Borton has always been involved in the Trade Union and Labour movement.

Cllr Borton and her family moved to Southend-on-Sea from Wapping in 1995, where she worked at the Southend office of the DWP until retirement.