A new chairman of Morecambe Town Council will be elected this week at its first meeting since the local elections where the previous chair lost her seat.
The new chair and vice-chair will be selected at the council's Annual Meeting on Thursday May 25 at Morecambe Town Hall.
The council will also choose new members of its grants, personnel, finance and governance, and festivals, sponsorship and events committees.
The previous chair, Cary Matthews of the Together for Morecambe group, lost her seat in the recent local elections.
The Morecambe Bay Independents won 14 seats in the elections and became the largest group with control of the council.
The Liberal Democrats had been the largest group previously but saw their number of seats halved from eight to four. Labour won seven seats.
Other senior councillors on the town council also lost their seats including MBI Tricia Heath, Lib Dem leader Bill Jackson, and Together for Morecambe's John Bates. Several other councillors, including vice-chair Paul Anderton, did not stand in the elections.
In total 20 of the 26 town councillors voted in on May 5, were not members of the town council immediately prior to the election.
FULL LIST OF COUNCILLORS on MORECAMBE TOWN COUNCIL following the local elections:
BARE NORTH: Martin Bottoms (MBI), Lee Bradbury (MBI), Russell Walsh (MBI)
BARE SOUTH EAST: Roger Dennison (MBI)
BARE SOUTH WEST: Geoff Knight (MBI)
HARBOUR: Christian Ainscough (Labour), Joanne Ainscough (Labour), John Hanson (Labour), Margaret Pattison (Labour), David Whitaker (Labour)
HEYSHAM NORTH: Trish Clarke (Independent), Claire Cozler (Labour), Clark Kent (MBI)
LOWLANDS ROAD: Jason Slater (MBI)
LUNE DRIVE: Jim Pilling (Lib Dems)
OUT MOSS LANE: John Goodrich (Labour)
POULTON: Paul Hart (Lib Dems), John Livermore (Lib Dems), Monika Stenneken (Lib Dems)
TORRISHOLME: Brett Cooper (MBI), Hannah Cooper (MBI), Jackie Rogerson (MBI)
WESTGATE: Dan Blacow (MBI), Wayne Dixon (MBI), Keri Gee (MBI), Debbie Knight (MBI)
Also on Thursday night's agenda, the council will discuss applications for grants, which include for local festivals.
These talks will be held in private, with the press and public unable to attend, as discussions could include the disclosure of exempt information under the Local Government Act.
"Grant applications are due to be considered by the council at its meeting scheduled for 25 May 2023," said a Morecambe Town Council spokesperson.
"Applications are usually considered within a 12-week timeframe. However, the council has been unable to consider grant applications since March due to local elections, which has unfortunately resulted in a two-week delay for some applicants.
"The council permits grant applications to be submitted up to 18 months in advance of events and encourages local organisations to apply for funding as early as possible."
The spokesperson said the council would not release details of the applicants, but any successful bids would be made public afterwards.
Five applications for funding will be discussed in total. Beyond Radio understands that one of them is for Armed Forces weekend.
The rest of the meeting, which starts at 7pm, will be open to the public.
Prior to the Annual Meeting, there will also be an Annual Meeting of Electors at Morecambe Town Hall starting at 6pm. This is open to the public.
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