Deputy Mayor

The Deputy Mayor of Maidstone is Cllr Derek Mortimer.

Derek was born in 1954 and brought up in a 22 acre council park in Bromley and had the run of the park as his father was the park keeper. He moved to Maidstone in 1978 from Bromley with his wife Sally. He has two sons and a daughter and six grandchildren. He worked for British Telecom for 23 years from an apprentice through to a lecturer in telecommunications. Since then he has had been involved with a number of family businesses.
He became a member of Tovil parish council in 2007 and in 2010 became Borough Councillor as he wished to broaden his horizons.
He has served on many committees and been the chairman of the Communities Housing and Environment committee for the last three years. One of his proudest moments on the committee was supporting the councils' homelessness policies through a prevention and intervention programme, so no one is left on the streets for whatever reason. This is supported by the continuing provision of temporary accommodation and building our own properties to alleviate our countries housing crisis.

He also introduced and promoted the first Neighbourhood plan in Maidstone Borough for the North Loose Residents Association. Which now gives the NLRA a formal voice on all planning applications in their patch as they are non-parished.

Derek has been a trustee of the Hayle Park Nature Reserve which now manages and owns 52 acres across the Loose valley area since its inception in 2015, and a trustee for twelve years with Maidstone YMCA at Loose and Tovil.

One of his main passions is the creation and improvements of many play areas, footpaths, open spaces and nature reserves which in turn support the health and wellbeing of residents.