In what Nub News hopes will be a regular column from the new Frome Mayor, Anita Collier writes about what she has been up to:

A week in and I still feel incredibly honoured to have been elected as your new Mayor, and I'm excited to get started! I have big shoes to fill, as Mark Dorrington did a fantastic job over the past 12 months and I hope to live up to his standard.

We're in strange times, and no doubt life as the Mayor will be a lot different from usual, in that there will be fewer events to attend in the short term as we adhere to social distancing. So, what have I been up to so far?

Last Thursday morning, the day after I was elected, I met with our former Mayor, Councillor Mark Dorrington, in order to receive the Mayor's chain. It was a rather different ceremony that took place in front of the Town Hall. We handed over the chain, holding it between us at arm's length in order to comply with social distancing. I also handed over my Deputy Mayor chain to Councillor Andy Wrintmore.

This followed on Saturday with the floral dressing of St. Aldhelm's Well – this is usually the first item in the mayoral calendar. The blessing of the well usually takes place by Rev. Colin Alsbury at the bottom of St. John's church steps. As we were not allowed to gather there this year, they chose instead to ask lots of people to send in a photo of flowers beside a tap so that they could create a large collage for display. The idea behind the tap shows the significance of free-flowing clean water which we often take for granted. It was wonderful to be able to contribute to this long-held tradition, even if it was only in a 'virtual' way.

I was also delighted to be asked for an interview with Simon Parkin on BBC Radio Somerset who wanted to talk to me about becoming the Mayor, and to find out more about the well dressing.

As you can imagine, there will be fewer than normal events to attend in my capacity as Mayor, but there's still plenty of work to do behind the scenes. As Mayor, I sit on six Council committees, and I'm also a Director of Fair Housing for Frome, so there are plenty of Zoom meetings to attend, and lots of admin attached. Having said that I really can't wait to be back out meeting people again. I hope it comes soon.

As Mayor, I want engage with you as much as possible, and I'm happy to hear from you at any time. Please feel free to comment on my 'Mayor of Frome' Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/mayoroffrome/), or you can email me at [email protected].

To find out my thinking for the coming year, go here the Town Council