The new Torpoint mayor is Stan Martin, who has lived in the town all his life, and aims during his year in office to ensure that plans for a leisure centre and skate board are pushed through.

Mr Martin's mayoress will be his wife, Christine, who he said is his greatest supporter. His deputy mayor will be distant relative, John Crago, who is also a great friend - and John's wife, Tina, will be deputy mayoress.

Stan, who praised current town councillors for all pulling together for the good of Torpoint, has been a member of the council since l982. He was deputy mayor in l994 and l996 and has also been a governor at Torpoint's three schools - the community school, infants' school and Carbeile juniors. He was a leading fireman in the town for 22 years, and is chairperson of the twinning committee, Torpoint's twin town being Benodet in France. His wife is also involved in twinning, and he praised her for her fund-raising efforts.

Daughter

Stan's daughter, 23-year-old Rebecca, works in London while his 25-year-old son Stephen, who is also a town councillor works for Gem Developments in Plymouth.

One of his aims for the coming year is to ensure the leisure centre comes to fruition, because he said apart from the need for such facilities there is also an urgent requirement for a community hall.

He pointed out that when representatives of Benodet visited Torpoint there was nowhere inside the town which could seat everyone for dinner.

He also said that he hoped the planned skate park would soon be organised, and added that he would be backing district councillor Diane Curran in her efforts for this to take place. He also stressed that he wanted the strong links with HMS Raleigh to continue.

Stan, who is now retired but who also enjoyed a stint as a traffic warden for some years, will be officially made mayor on May 18.