SIX DAYS before stepping down, having completed her year in office as the Mayor of Appleby, Coun Ella Langan has taken on another demanding position having been elected as the vice chairman of Eden District Council.

She was first elected to Appleby Town Council in 1983, and has, during her 21 years on the council, served on every one of the council's committees; in 1990 she was elected by members of the council to be the Town Mayor, serving for one year.

Mrs Langan has been the council's Deputy Mayor on four separate occasions, and last year, 13 years after her first holding of the office, she was again the choice of the other member of the town council who elected her to be the Town Mayor again. Her present year in office ends this month.

Ella Langan has a most impressive record in service to the community, other than the town council, having been chairman at both local and district level in Ladies Circle; a local leader as well as the District Commissioner in the Scout Movement, she was the Town Mayor who started the Appleby-in-Westmorland Society and serves on committees of several local organisations.

Mrs. Langan was elected to Eden District Council in 1999 and again returned in 2003. She has always been a member of the planning committee and was appointed it's vice chairman in 2001, an office she still holds; she was appointed to the Districts Councils Scrutiny Committee when it was first formed and is still a member.

Mrs Langan said: "I am delighted at my new appointment and grateful to my fellow district councillors for placing their trust in me. I admire and respect the new chairman Roy Fisher and know I can learn a great deal from him."