Former engineer, Councillor Alan Taylor, is looking forward to forging new community links in his new role as Mayor of Dudley.

Councillor Taylor, who has represented Halesowen South ward for 14 years, served as deputy mayor in 2017/18 and took over the role of Mayor at a full council meeting last night.

Cllr Taylor has chosen three local charities to support during his year in office, including Headway Black Country, who specialise in supporting people with an acquired brain injury; White House Cancer Support which supports people with cancer, their families and friends; and The Hope Centre in Halesowen, a charity with a Christian ethos which looks to provide practical and emotional support to people at their point of need. Councillor Taylor said:

“It’s a real honour to be chosen to serve as Mayor of Dudley and it’s a role Win and I feel privileged to take on.

“We’re looking forward to supporting my three charities and are really keen to work with local businesses and organisations to raise as much money as we can for these and other causes.”

Councillor Hilary Bills was also named deputy Mayor for the year ahead. During the same meeting, Cllr Patrick Harley, leader of the council, announced his new cabinet for the forthcoming year, with some new faces on board.

Cllr Harley said the new team would be tasked with overseeing some huge programmes of work and making key decisions over the next 12 months. It includes the £353 million Midland Metro extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill, the £82 million Portersfield leisure and retail development in Dudley, building on the DY5 enterprise zone success and overseeing continued improvements in children’s services.

Councillor David Vickers remains as deputy leader of the council, but there are new roles for Councillors Ruth Buttery, Simon Phipps and Angus Lees. Cllr Harley said:

“There are some new faces on the cabinet and some people returning to their roles, but each and every cabinet member has a crucial job in ensuring we deliver value for money services to the people of this borough.

“This is a pivotal year ahead with a number of key programmes of work on the table and it is essential we have the right people in place to deliver that.

“This authority is 92 per cent self-sufficient which means we rely less on funding from central government because of the money we bring in. This cabinet will build on that and help make us more efficient than ever before, something that is critical to delivering big projects and high quality services at the same time.”

The cabinet in full is:

Councillor Patrick Harley, council leader and cabinet member for policy 

Councillor David Vickers, deputy leader of the council

Councillor Steve Clark, cabinet member for finance

Councillor Nicolas Barlow, cabinet member for adult social care 

Councillor Angus Lees, cabinet member for children’s services 

Councillor Simon Phipps, cabinet member for procurement, transformation and commercialisation

Councillor Karen Shakespeare, cabinet member for environmental services 

Councillor Ruth Buttery, cabinet member for health and wellbeing 

Councillor Laura Taylor, cabinet member for housing 

Councillor Ian Kettle, cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise