Deputy Mayor
Deputy Mayor, Councillor Geoff Austin
On the evening of Wednesday 11th May 2011, Councillor Patrick Codd, Mayor for the 2011/2012 municipal year, chose Councillor Geoff Austin to be his Deputy Mayor and his wife, Mrs Sheila Austin, as the Deputy Mayoress.
Born in Carshalton in 1948, Councillor Austin was educated at Whitgift School, Croydon, and has been involved with local government for much of his life. His father was an Independent Councillor on the old Beddington and Wallington Borough Council, and on leaving school Geoff decided to pursue a career in local government. He was employed by Croydon, Westminster and Lambeth Councils in their Social Services Departments before taking early retirement in 2005. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Sector Management.
Geoff and his wife Sheila have a son and two grandchildren, and have lived in Clifton Road, Kingston for 21 years. He was elected a Councillor for Canbury Ward in May 2006, and has a number of interests outside local government, in particular sport. He enjoyed a long rugby playing career, and is now an active referee, and a Vice-President of the Surrey R.F.U. He also enjoys watching football, and is a Patron of our local team Kingstonian F.C. He likes listening to country & western and folk music, and presents a regular show on Kingston Hospital Radio. He is also a reader on the Kingston Talking Newspaper for the Blind, and Vice-Chairman of the Friends of Kingston Hospital.
Given his involvement with volunteering and fundraising at Kingston Hospital, the Deputy Mayor is delighted to be supporting this year’s Mayor’s charities, ‘Born Too Soon’ and ‘Macmillan Cancer’ both of which give tremendous support to patients at Kingston Hospital.
