To celebrate the reopening of shops and businesses in the town on Monday, mayor Ann Pearce, assisted by town crier Tony Evans, officially welcomed all to Tetbury.

This was Ann’s’ first official public engagement and what a day. As the town crier began to shout his welcome, Ann was visibly overjoyed when she was presented with an impromptu bouquet of flowers from one of the many workers in the town.

The bouquet was made by flower shop Scentiments to say thank you to Ann for making such a lovely gesture to mark this occasion.

Ann and Tony along with Cllr Kevin Painter, chair of the Chamber of Commerce, then did a tour of the town popping into as many diverse shops as possible.

Ann was delighted to hear that already many of the shops had been quite busy, and is now looking forward to assisting the regeneration of the town as much as humanly possible.

She’s already been given quite a few ideas that will be discussed at one of the council committee meetings.

Kevin said: “I’ve always said it’s the people that live and work here that make it a place you want to return to again and again and of course the diversity of different businesses and shops that make it a true market town, a working market town, a welcoming market town.

"I think we should all thank the shops and businesses that continued working through the crisis whilst waiting for their friends to be allowed to open their doors once again, making Tetbury a perfect shopping destination.”