ABERYSTWYTH Town Council has elected its new mayor and deputy mayor.

Last week, councillors elected Dr Talat Zafar Chaudhri as the town’s mayor and Kerry Ferguson as deputy mayor.

For Cllr Chaudhri, this will be his second term as mayor, with his first being in 2018: “In my second term in office as Mayor, I’m most interested in focusing on inclusion and community facilities for residents.

“In particular, we need to help people with particular access requirements, such as the disabled. We need to try to increase the number of facilities for young people in particular. The multi-use games area in Penparcau in particular is an excellent facility that could potentially see considerable further improvement at relatively low cost.

“I’d like to resolve the issue that has prevented us opening a new area of growing spaces in Plascrug. As our plans for the former Catholic church develop, I’d like to continue to focus on developing it as a community centre.

“To do these things we will need to work with community partners who can attract grants and widen the scope of what we can achieve together as a town. We also need to continue to work with the police, the County Council and other agencies to tackle anti-social activity.

“I am particularly supportive of the Deputy Mayor Kerry Ferguson’s proposals to bring back the Carnival and Castle Rock, which will take community effort and time this year in order to bring them back next year. I want to work together with the community and fellow councillors to achieve these things and hopefully many more, so I urge residents to bring their ideas to our attention.”

Cllr Ferguson said she was “proud to have been chosen and elected”: “Priorities for me over the coming year are to work on community pride in Aberystwyth and communication, as well as supporting small businesses. There’s a lot of work to be done in the town, from basics like tidying up particular areas to larger problems like the anti-social behaviour which I’ve been working on.

“Being pro-active about issues and concerns, and a role model to that effect is definitely something I will be keen to work on, and not just while Deputy Mayor.”

Cllr Ferguson spoke of her desire to bring back “some much-needed events to the town”, already compiling a list of events residents are keen to see return. Cllr Ferguson also stressed the importance of continuing to communicate with residents on social media, and her desire to inspire the younger generation to join the town council.