CALLINGTON bade farewell to its portreeve for 2013/14, who has retired from the town council after more than a decade, and welcomed a familiar face to the chair for the next year in office. Ending her year as portreeve and mayor of the town, Denise Winfindale thanked councillors and members of the public at the annual portreeve choosing ceremony last week. She said: 'I want to thank the town councillors for their support — I am going to miss everyone. After 13 years on the council, I feel like it's time to move in a different direction. You have eleven excellent councillors and a wonderful town clerk. The town is in really good hands.' For the portreeve choosing ceremony, councillors gave nominations for the positions of new portreeve and deputy portreeve. Cllr Winfindale nominated Cllr Andrew Long for the portreeve position for 2014/15. She said: 'I nominate a fine gentleman who is not only an outstanding town councillor, but an outstanding Cornwall councillor. I have never known anyone to work so hard for the town. He is on-call 24 hours a day and most people call on him for help.' Seconding her proposal, councillor Phil Harriman said: 'There is not a man who works harder for his electorate than Cllr Long, so I am happy to second that proposal.' After being unanimously voted into the position, Cllr Long said: 'Thank you very much. It is a question of carrying on the good work that Denise has done to move the town forward. We are not a town that curls up our toes when there are problems. Things don't always turn out right but we have a town that is protected from what central government may throw at us. I am immensely proud to represent the town and Kelly Bray.' Cllr Long has been on Callington Town Council for 15 years and has been the portreeve once before in 2006/7. He is currently the chair of the planning committee and vice chairman of the finance and general purposes committee. He also served on Caradon District Council from 2007, and was voted on to the new Cornwall Unitary Council in 2009. Cllr Long is also a keen supporter of the town's football club and Shout Kernow — a group which aims to bring back Cornish folk singing to pubs around the county. The new portreeve nominated Phil Harriman for the position of deputy by saying: 'I would love to say he's a man of few words — but he's not. He is passionate about the town he lives in and whatever he is doing he always puts Callington first.' Cllr Harriman was also unanimously voted as the new deputy. Former Royal Navy servicemen Cllr Harriman initially moved to Callington from Yorkshire in 1993 and, after a short break, moved back to the town permanently in 1999 to work as a postman. He now teaches First Aid part-time at City College Plymouth. He has served on the town council since 2008 and is also the vice-chair of the planning committee. Callington Town Crier Tony Stentiford was re-instated in the position for the next year with Cllr Jeremy Gist praising his enthusiasm. Cllr Gist said: 'Tony has taken on the task of town crier with tremendous enthusiasm. Wherever he goes he represents Callington in a superb manner. There is no doubt in my mind that I would like to nominate Tony as the town crier again.' At the end of the meeting, retiring councillor Denise Winfindale was presented with a box of plants and a bottle of gin with two engraved glasses as a leaving present.