“It was also important to us that Cllr Oran Keenan was given the opportunity to step up from Deputy Mayor to Mayor. Oran has been a councillor since 1985 and fully deserves the office of Mayor.
“I believe that Oran and Adrian Watson will continue as a good team in the top two posts, but the symbolism of the change at the top is very significant to all the people of the borough.
“I am also pleased that my proposal which sees members of four different parties chairing committees in the council was accepted. For the first time ever, Cllr Henry Cushinan has been elected to chair a committee. I do not think that Antrim people will be impressed by the synthetic rage coming from the party that shares power at Stormont with Sinn Fein. The choice for unionists is clear. Either they share power willingly at local level, or they have it imposed in future by a crude mathematical formula. I am pleased to see this movement forward on voluntary power-sharing.”
ENDS