{"id":49230,"date":"2026-05-26T16:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/49230\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:41:12","slug":"cotswold-councillor-who-became-uks-youngest-mayor-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/49230\/","title":{"rendered":"Cotswold councillor who became UK&#8217;s youngest mayor resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.localgov.co.uk\/Image\/Cotswold-councillor-who-became-UKs-youngest-mayor-resigns-\/joe\/jpg\" alt=\"Cotswold councillor who became UKs youngest mayor resigns  image\" class=\"img-responsive img-full\"\/>Cllr Joe Harris \u00a9 Cotswold District Council.<br \/>\n        A Liberal Democrat councillor who was once one of the youngest elected politicians in England has resigned after 15 years in local government.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Harris, who was first elected to Cotswold District Council in 2011 at the age of 18, told the council this week it was \u2018time for a change of career\u2019 in his final speech at its annual meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Harris went on to become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.localgov.co.uk\/Council-leader-stands-down-to-focus-on-LGA-role\/61998\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">youngest mayor in the UK at 20<\/a>, representing Cirencester, and was council leader from the age of 26. He is also stepping down as a Gloucestershire County councillor.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old described his time in local government as \u2018an absolute honour\u2019 and said leaving was \u2018a wrench\u2019, but that \u2018sometimes the hardest thing is deciding to move on at the right time.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Harris has taken up a new role as strategic relationships lead at the East West Railway Company and told the BBC: \u2018While I&#8217;m stepping away from elected office, Cirencester will always be home, and I&#8217;ll always care deeply about the town and the people here.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>An election to fill the vacancy in the St Michael\u2019s ward will take place on Thursday 2 July 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Jane Portman, chief executive officer at Cotswold District Council, said: &#8216;I would like to express my sincere thanks to Joe Harris for his dedicated service and strong representation of his residents. We wish him every success in the future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Engagement in local democracy is vital, and I encourage residents of the St Michael\u2019s ward to make sure they are registered to vote and take part in the by-election. Please also check your voting arrangements and ensure you have the necessary identification where required.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.localgov.co.uk\/form\/bulletin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HR.png\" style=\"width: 100%;\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cllr Joe Harris \u00a9 Cotswold District Council. A Liberal Democrat councillor who was once one of the youngest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[24735,6375,8939,5,6],"class_list":["post-49230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-councillors","tag-hr","tag-mayors","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116641876198988527","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}