At their meeting this week, Oswestry Town Council appointed Councillor Olly Rose as Mayor elect for the 2023/24 civic year.

Councillor Rose was elected in 2017 and has lived in Shropshire for more than 30 years and grew to know Oswestry through work and chose it as her home.

Olly was originally a teacher in both the UK and overseas, working with young families to develop adult literacy alongside their children, and later worked with young adults helping to improve self-esteem and running workshops on issues such as drug use, contraception, and health related problems. Olly also worked with charity ‘Age UK’ for 20 years, working on projects to help older people remain in their own homes and some localised research work. Oswestry formed part of her patch throughout this time.

“I am delighted that from May I will enter my mayoral year. During the year, it will be the 350th anniversary of Oswestry being granted its charter, when the first Oswestry Mayor was established. During this period, there has been a great number of Mayors from different backgrounds, with different interests. The Council would like to thank our outgoing Mayor, Cllr Jay Moore, who has brought a fresh style to the role and has been incredibly active throughout the year.”

Olly will champion volunteering during her year as Mayor. “I have always been involved in volunteer work and been active in ‘Oswestry in Bloom’ and help to run our Oswestry Ukrainian Support Hub.” Olly adds, “Through my previous work and as a Councillor, I have come across many volunteer groups running vitally important services. Sometimes the volunteers and organisations are so busy working hard for their project, they do not have time to link up with complementary organisations. During my year as Mayor, I would encourage any volunteer group to contact me. I would like to improve networking in the town so that people can access the great schemes which are out there, and groups can work together to help each other and hopefully find some additional volunteers. Often when people are socially isolated, ill, or suffering with mental health issues, they find it even harder to find out what help is available in the community.”

The Deputy Mayor elect for 2023/24 will be Councillor, Mike Isherwood.

Councillor Olly Rose.