The Lord Mayor of Canterbury for 2006/7 is Councillor Pat Todd. He was elected to Canterbury City Council in 1999 to represent Swalecliffe ward and was re-elected in 2003 to represent the much larger ward of Chestfield and Swalecliffe together with two other councillors.
A Ramsgate lad by birth, Pat was schooled in Maidstone before joining the Kent County Constabulary as a cadet in 1964 and the regular force in 1967. He retired in 1998 with the majority of his service spent in the Canterbury district.
Pat has always been a busy man with many outside interests mainly involving youth. He is still a scout leader, President of Whitstable Rugby Club and Middle Tier manager at Twickenham Stadium. He has been a coach for many sports including football, swimming, rugby, canoeing and outdoor pursuits: with his main focus now on angling, he is affiliated to the Professional Anglers' Association. He finds sport a great vehicle for the breaking-down of barriers between all ages.
Little wonder, then, that he has said that his focus for his term of office will be youth, sport, community and anything in the great outdoors!
He is the Student Welfare Manager at Herne Bay High School and Sports College and says, "Without the total support of the Head Teacher, staff and School community, it would be very difficult to fulfil the role of Lord Mayor properly."
Since his election to Canterbury City Council, Pat has served on several committees, outside bodies and short scrutiny reviews and is a past chair of the Joint Transportation Board, Whitstable Area Members Panel and Sport Canterbury District.
He states that his biggest challenges in his term of office are going to be diary management and keeping good order in the council chamber.
His long-suffering wife of thirty-six years, Barbara, is the Lady Mayoress; together they have two grown-up children, one grandchild and a diary date in November for the arrival of another.
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