New mayors have been elected in Lowestoft and Southwold following their town council's annual meetings.

In Lowestoft, town councillor Ian Graham was re-elected to the position of mayor with Peter Knight also re-elected as deputy mayor on Tuesday, May 8.

Mr Graham said his ambitions in the role are to continue to work with the community to help develop and improve the town.

He said: 'We are committed to working with everybody who is interested in Lowestoft.

'We are working with the Jack Rose Society to get some plaques up, with Lowestoft In Bloom to get some flowers in the parks including at Sparrows Nest and plans to commemorate the Lifeboat Institute and planning for the centenary of the war later this year.'

He added: 'It is a great honour to be elected. It's not the normal mayor that we have in Lowestoft because of the sheer amount of work there is to do but I hope that with Peter continuing to do as well he did last year, the town will be very well served.'

In Southwold, continuing to diversify the local economy and stabilise its population are high up on the agenda for new mayor Michael Rowan-Robinson.

Mr Robinson, who was elected as mayor at the town council's annual meeting on Monday, May 14, said: 'It is a great honour to be elected.

'We have been developing a number of quite large projects such as planning to refurbish the town hall and the goal is to try and find a way to stabilise the population of Southwold which has been declining at an alarming rate.'

He added: 'We are also interested in trying to diversify the economy and see a bit more year round enjoyment.

'There are two aspects to the job, one is to chair the council and steer it through its various plans and the other is, of course, to represent Southwold to the wider world.

'We need to see something completed so that the town can see what we are doing and I am hoping that is what we will see in the next year.'

Matthew Horwood was elected as Southwold's deputy mayor.