During his mayoral year, Councillor Stevenson will be supported at civic engagements by his wife Anne, while his daughters Sara Abigail Oakes and Johanna McNeill will also step in for some events. He will be accompanied at various events by the Mayor’s Cadets from the Derbyshire Air Cadet Force, the Air Training Squadron and the Long Eaton Sea Cadets.

Events will be held throughout the year to raise money for the Mayor’s ‘charity pot’ from which charitable groups and organisations from within the borough will benefit at the end of his term of office.

Councillor Stevenson is looking forward to representing the residents of Erewash during his civic year:

“I feel very honoured to have been elected as Mayor and it is my greatest pleasure to serve not only the Borough Council but also the residents of our wonderful borough during my civic year.”

Councillor Stevenson was born in Bombay and moved to England where he joined Loughborough College to study Mechanical Engineering. After university he joined International Combustion in Derby in the contracts department and then the project management team on the Dungeness Nuclear Power Station.

After leaving IC Limited he and Anne set up Ziggi’s, a fashion store, on Sadler Gate in Derby and Victoria Street in Nottingham, both of which included the popular ‘The Q in the Corner’ coffee shop. Both he and his wife retired from the business in 2009.

In his spare time, the Mayor is a keen car enthusiast and enjoys going to events to display his cars, while he and his wife also enjoy spending time with their family – they have a son in the USA, two daughters, eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

The Reverend Gill Turner-Callis of St Andrew’s Church in Stanley Village, will be the Mayor’s Chaplain for the 2016/17 civic year.

The new Deputy Mayor of Erewash is Councillor Mary Hopkinson, who represents the Little Hallam Ward on the Borough Council.