A mother of four and environmental campaigner has been chosen to be the next mayor of Brighton and Hove.
Labour councillor Theresa Fowler became deputy mayor last night (Thursday 18 December) and is expected to become mayor in May.
She replaces Councillor Ty Galvin who resigned as deputy mayor last month after he was suspended under investigation by the Labour Party. He now sits as an Independent.
Councillor Galvin said that a complaint had been made against him which he considered vexatious and that he was taking legal advice.
At Hove Town Hall yesterday, the Labour leader of the council, Bella Sankey, said that Councillor Fowler raised her four children in the city and ran a craft shop in Fiveways for many years.
Councillor Sankey said: “Theresa has been a strong advocate for protecting Brighton and Hove’s environment and cherished green spaces.
“She has championed recycling, reducing plastic waste and led community clean-up initiatives across her ward and beyond.”
Councillor Sankey said that one of Councillor Fowler’s great achievements was campaigning for a ban on balloon releases and sky lanterns – now part of the council’s public space protection orders.
Another Labour councillor, Alison Thomson, seconded the nomination and also praised Councillor Fowler’s commitment to the environment.
Councillor Thomson said: “I remember how excited Theresa was when a pod of dolphins was spotted off Brighton beach around 18 months ago.
“It was a result of the protection of our sea floor from aggressive fishing practices which had seen the dolphins disappear from that area of our coastline. There was literally punching the air with joy at the announcement.”
Councillor Fowler is a life-long resident of Brighton and Hove who has represented Hollingdean since 2019, first in Hollingdean and Stanmer ward and since 2023 in Hollingdean and Fiveways.
She was elected with the support of Labour and Conservative councillors – but Green and Independent councillors abstained.
Former mayor, Green councillor Pete West, was thwarted as he tried to explain why his party were abstaining from the vote.
Outside the meeting, he said that, since 2023, the ceremonial role of mayor has been held by Labour councillors only.
The decision to abstain was not personal and Councillor West said: “I’m sure Councillor Fowler will make an excellent mayor and I hope she enjoys it.”
He said that his party believed that the mayoralty should be shared between the parties as it had generally been previously by convention.
He said: “It is not good for the council to always be chaired by a member of the administration party.
“Rotating the mayoralty with other parties would be good for the integrity of the office – its political neutrality.
“It would signal a step towards an open and inclusive approach, something sadly Labour seem to have a rather distant relationship with.”
On a personal level, he said that he wished Councillor Fowler good luck in the role hoped that she would enjoy her “very special year” as mayor.
environmental campaigner who voted for weed killer glyphosate? Right!
Any news on why the last deputy mayor was suspended yet?
Last I heard was that Labour were doing an internal investigation into a complaint about him, but it all seems to have gone quiet.
He didn’t agree with some of the local leadership so they invented a complaint against him. They painted him into a corner for having views about local issues which were uncomfortable for the arrogant, ambitious leaders. One of these is the prospect of losing the Brighton General Hospital site from the ownership of the local people to whom it was bequeathed.
When are we voting in the reform mayor?
They’re trying to put off elections as a last ditch attempt to hold onto power.
Answer this, why would you vote in a mayor for boundaries, powers and councils that have not been finalised yet? LGR has to happen first.