Deputy Mayor

MEET THE DEPUTY MAYOR

Martyn joined Crowborough Town Council, as a co-opted member for Crowborough North Ward, in May 2015. He is now serving his second year as Deputy Town Mayor.

Martyn was born in Derby and spent the first twenty-two years of his life in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. His first job was at Erewash Borough Council in Ilkeston, Derbyshire dealing with Housing Acquisitions, assisting in the planning of a new Crematorium and the administration of Home Loss and Disturbance compensation payments under the Council’s Slum Clearance programme.

Four years later, in the summer of 1978, he accepted a job with Wealden District Council and moved to Crowborough to become a Committee Clerk at the Starfield Offices on Beacon Road. Martyn says, “I thought it would be a nice stepping stone to a number of jobs in local government throughout Britain, but somehow I managed to stay for the next 30 plus years.  I may not have had a lot of jobs but I certainly had a variety of functions.  Ominously one of my roles was Town & Parish Liaison Officer and a National Association of Parish Councils Assessor for the Quality Parish Council Scheme.  I should have taken it as a sign!”

One of Martyn’s strangest jobs was acting as Communications Officer in Wealden’s underground Emergency Centre in Hailsham (a relic from the Cold War) evacuating 550 people from Pevensey Bay, when the shingle bank gave way to the sea on Christmas Eve 1999.  The emergency lasted 9 hours, and thankfully most of the people evacuated were able to return home early on Christmas Day. Sadly, Martyn had to end his career early when his wife Sheila was diagnosed terminally ill.  Sheila Garrett (Kay) died at the end of 2013, but will be known to many students at Beacon Academy as their teacher of Religious Studies.