THE Vale council elected its mayor for the forthcoming year at its annual general meeting on Wednesday, May 11.

Vale Barry Buttrills ward councillor, Stuart Egan was selected to be the Vale mayor for the year 2016/17 and his consort will be friend, Nigel Gibbs.

Cllr Edward Williams was made deputy mayor, with Karen Williams deputy mayoress.

Cllr Egan’s nominated charities are the Penarth and District Lethoso Trust which raises money to send to projects in the African country.

And the Llandough Orchard Charity project, which a new initiative Cllr Egan is involved with, aimed at providing a place for patients, staff and visitors to enjoy.

The mayor’s civic celebration is scheduled to take place on Saturday, September 10.

Cllr Egan attended Barry Comprehensive and left school at 16 to then work for Trustees Savings Bank on Holton Road. He worked for BP Chemicals for nine years and was made redundant.

Nominating Cllr Egan for the Vale mayor role, Vale Council leader, Cllr Neil Moore said: “Stuart gratefully took redundancy finding himself unemployed for a while which he found very grim – so he knows what it’s like to be unemployed.”

Cllr Egan then studied catering at Barry College of Further Education, and gained employment at Llandough Hospital working in the pot wash kitchens before moving to Sully Hospital to drive cooked-chilled food to Llandough Hospital.

He then became assistant cook and chef.

His NHS career led to him joining the Trade Union movement as a local representative and he became local branch secretary of NUPE, continuing in the role when Unison was formed and holding many positions on local, regional and national level.

He was first elected onto the Vale of Glamorgan Council in 1995 and has been the authority’s deputy leader and adult services cabinet member.

He remains the Older Peoples’ champion.

Cllr Egan is High Street primary’s chairman of governors and a governor at St Helens junior school.