Carralyn Parkes has been named the new Mayor of Portland for 2023-2024.

She was named as the new Mayor at a ceremony on Portland on Wednesday, May 18.

Cllr Parkes said it was an "honour and a privilege" to be named Mayor.

She said: "I am very grateful for the opportunity, it is a huge honour and a privilege.

"I am looking forward to being an ambassador for Portland in the coming year."

Mayor Parkes will be arriving straight in the deep end with a controversial barge housing asylum seekers set to arrive at Portland next month.

Cllr Parkes said: "Portland Town Council recently made a statement regarding the barge.

"We think that the barge coming here is wrong on all levels.

"We don't have the infrastructure and it is inhumane to keep human beings in these conditions.

"It is an awful situation we have been put in as a council and as a town."

Cllr Parkes follows outgoing Mayor Pete Roper who held the title through a "challenging era" between 2022-2023.

Cllr Roper said: "It has been an honour and privilege to represent Portland and its residents.

"It has been a strange and challenging ear with the Queen's jubilee, her death and then the King's Coronation.

"It has been quite a load on individual Mayors around the country.

"It is an experience I will never forget and I enjoyed every minute of it.

"I was asked to introduce myself in one sentence and I would say I am Councillor Pete Roper, I am the Mayor of Portland and absolutely loving it.

"Being a mayor, there is no manual for it, no documents, you grow into it over the year."