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28
May 2022
10 facts about Knaresborough's new mayor Kathryn Davies
Kathryn Davies was elected Knaresborough's new mayor last week.
Cllr Davies, a Conservative, had not been a town councillor before then and she said she was excited and ready to "jump in at the deep end" in her new role.
Green Party councillor Mark Flood will serve as her deputy.
Cllr Davies, who moved to Knaresborough 16 years ago, said she had got more involved in local campaigns over the last five years and felt the role of mayor would help her become more integrated in the local community.
Here are 10 facts about Knaresborough's new mayor:
1 She has lived in Yorkshire all her life and used to visit Knaresborough for "a day out in the summer" as a child.
2 She met her husband, Rob, 25 years ago at a dinner in Nottingham and they married eight years later. She now has two step-daughters and two grandchildren.
3 Cllr Davies reached senior level in the civil service, working for the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and finally the Food Standards Agency.
4 She has completed a year-long accountancy course with the army and leadership training with the SAS.
5 Her areas of focus for the town will be housing and, as a lover of the outdoors, she wants to help preserve the town's green space.
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6 She is a keen supporter of the weekly market and independent shops and tries to do all her shopping locally instead of at supermarkets.
7 During her term, she will be fundraising for Cliff House Community Support Services, a charity that helps older people live independently. She is also looking for a mental health charity to support. During her A-levels, Cllr Davies was involved in a serious car accident that left her deaf in one ear. It took her 10 years to overcome the trauma and she wants to use her experiences to help others.
8 Over the past five years she has worked with other residents and Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones to raise the issue of flooding by the River Nidd and to get a tree preservation order on a section of woodland near Waterside.
9 Since retiring a decade ago, she has taken a number of two-year courses at York University including creative writing and Spanish.
10 She is a member of Harrogate and District Naturalists Society, the Royal Horticultural Society and English Heritage. She also supports a nature reserve at Farnham.
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