Redcar and Cleveland's Mayor for 2025/26, Councillor Ian Hart, was elected to office at the Council’s AGM on 22nd May and wore the robes for the first time at his official Mayoral Investiture Ceremony at the Civic Centre, Redcar on 29th May.
The Liberal Democrat Councillor for the Ormesby ward has been a Councillor since 2023. He was born in Cargo Fleet and grew up in Park End, Middlesbrough, but has lived in Ormesby for most of his life.
After taking A levels, he studied chemistry at Liverpool University and after graduating did postgraduate research into heteropentalenes, before then studying for a postgraduate certificate in education. During the 1980s he worked as a research technician in the Chemistry Department at Teesside University, eventually leaving to run Chemical Management Services, a small company set up to carry out research and local business support.
After becoming self-employed he provided consultancy work with various companies in the UK and Australia. He spent three years in the late 1990s in Sydney providing project management and IT support. On return to the UK, he continued consultancy work but eventually became a full-time Carer for his mother who had dementia, until she passed away in 2019.
Cllr Hart formed the Ormesby Library Friends Group in 2010 and has been its chairperson since its foundation. He also took up bell ringing and is now the Tower Captain for St Cuthbert’s Church bell tower. He is also a member of St Cuthbert’s Church Parochial Church Council.
Cllr Hart has chosen two charities to support; Footprints in the Community, which supports people struggling with poverty and isolation, and St Cuthberts Church’s (Ormesby) Tower Restoration Fund.
Cllr Hart said:
“It is a great honour and privilege to be Mayor of our Borough and I look forward to being a good Ambassador for the area.”
The Deputy Mayor is Councillor Ceri Cawley the Labour Councillor for the Dormanstown Ward.
To book the Mayor for an event please contact the Mayor’s Office via:
Email: jane.holmes@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk Tel. 01642 444501
The Mayor’s Office, Civic Centre, Ridley Street, Redcar, TS10 1TD