A FORMER director of the Confederation of British Industry has been appointed mayor of a Suffolk town.Hugo Herbert-Jones, 85, has been on Aldeburgh town council for 10 years and now he has taken over the mayor's role from Celia Leggett.

By Richard Smith

A FORMER director of the Confederation of British Industry has been appointed mayor of a Suffolk town.

Hugo Herbert-Jones, 85, has been on Aldeburgh town council for 10 years and now he has taken over the mayor's role from Celia Leggett. His deputy is Jimmy Robinson.

Mr Herbert-Jones, of Park Road, Aldeburgh, has two goals he wants to achieve during his mayoral year. “The first is affordable housing. There are several possible sites and there will be something happening in the coming year,” he said.

“The second object is to achieve quality parish status which is the Government scheme for parish pump councils in order to devolve more powers to them and give them more grants to administer.

“But I would like to also make headway on issues that were around when I first came onto the council such as speeding, dog mess, seagulls and vandalism.”

Mr Herbert-Jones, a retired diplomat who was married to Margaret for 45 years before she died, has been actively involved with many organisations in the town.

He said: “I had been coming to Aldeburgh for sailing and musical reasons and to some extent golf before I bought a house in 1976.

“I was a second homeowner to begin with until I retired and then I started involving myself in local affairs. I was churchwarden for eight years, chairman and president of the Aldeburgh Society, chairman of the United Charities and president of the Volunteer Centre.”