A SOUTH Somerset Councillor has been elected 1st Vice President of the Congress of the Council of Europe.

Nigel Mermagen, District Councillor and Ward Member for Chard Avishayes has is the first person from the UK to hold the position.

The Council of Europe was established in Strasbourg in 1949 largely at the instigation of Winston Churchill, with the objective of promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout Europe after the Second World War. It has grown over the years and now covers 47 countries including Russia and the European parts of the former Soviet Union. The Congress, founded in 1994, is the local government section of the Council of Europe.

Cllr Mermagen has been a member of the UK delegation since 2006 which consists of 36 elected members from all levels of local government in the UK and from the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies.

During his time with the Congress, he has concentrated on election observation and the monitoring of local democracy, mainly in the newly independent countries of eastern and southern Europe.

Cllr Mermagen said: “I am very pleased to have been elected to a senior position in an organisation that Britain did so much to found 65 years ago.

“The work I have done with the Congress has helped to strengthen local democracy in countries which for historical reasons have suffered dictatorship and lack of independence in recent centuries.

“My experience over more than 20 years as a councillor on Chard Town Council, South Somerset District Council and Somerset County Council has been very useful to me in this interesting work”.

Cllrr Mermagen sits on the Congress as a South Somerset District Council councillor, but at no expense to the district council or the council tax payer.