INDEPENDENT councillor Robert Steemson has been chosen to serve a second term as the chair of Teignbridge Council.

The Haytor councillor’s deputy chairman – again for a second term – will be Jack Major, who is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Ashburton and Buckfastleigh.

Cllr Steemson said his first year in office had been a ‘great experience’ and had seen him visiting places ‘the length and breadth of the district’.

He thanked fellow councillors for their support and council staff for their ‘wonderful work’.

Leader Richard Keeling (Lib Dem, Chudleigh) said he was proposing Cllr Steemson for a second term ‘for your respect, your civility and the fact that you have allowed debate in this chamber’.