THE new mayor of Malvern Cllr Marilyn Birks said she never foresaw herself being elected as she outlined her objectives for her term in office.

Cllr Birks was elected as Cllr Clive Hooper's successor as the new mayor of Malvern last week.

Her election came after a tense tie-break vote with fellow electee Cllr David Watkins.

Cllr Birks said she felt "privileged" to have been elected as mayor having moved back to town in 2014.

"It's exciting. I found myself waking up one morning and saying to myself 'Marilyn, you're the mayor of Malvern!'" she said.

"I lived here back in the 1970s before I moved away from works reasons, but things changed and I thought why not come back here.

"I wasn't looking to do anything politically, but they advertised vacancies at the council and Malvern means a lot to me and my family, so I went for it.

"But I feel privileged really. I never thought I would be the mayor, the journey I have been on has given me a lot of skills necessary for the job."

Cllr Birks had no intention of making a career in politics but soon found herself working the parish council before moving on to Malvern Town Council.

"I worked last year as a cooperative member and previously worked on the Malvern Wells Parish Council," she said.

"I wanted to focus my energy in that direction, so I organised a defibrator project and programme for CPR over Malvern Wells.

"I raised my profile across Malvern Wells with other initiatives, such as traffic-related issues."

Cllr Birks hoped to establish a model that would enable councillors to improve Malvern for its residents.

"I hope everyone will look at problems, have a coherent approach and work closer as councillors," said Cllr Birks.

"We have all got funding, so we need to know how we can use our resources to do the work we can for the area.

"I had a model of working while in Malvern Wells and that's something I would like to see us do in the town, trying to enhance the environment for people living in the area.

"It's my responsibility to listen to councillors and people and I hope in the next few months we know what we are going to do, working collaboratively and see what difference we can make.

"The process with councillors will be to decide together, I hope, what the priorities will be.

"I don't want to be saying where are we going, we need to do it together.

"I've only been on the council for a short space of time so there's things I don't know and others who know their patch extremely well.

"It's early days but I hope we can work on things I am passionate about - that would be great."