ABINGDON’S new Conservative-run town council angered former mayors by breaking with tradition and electing Mike Badcock, top, to the position.

The Tory was elected mayor on May 16 after his party used its one-seat majority to vote him in ahead of the longest-serving councillor who has not yet been mayor – Liberal Democrat Samantha Bowring.

The former mayor was Lib Dem Duncan Brown who did not stand for re-election.