NEW mayor of Cirencester Mark Harris has said his three priorities are car parking, dog fouling, and bringing the community even closer together.

The 49-year-old mayor was appointed last week at the annual meeting of Cirencester Town Council. He replaced Joe Harris - who is also his son - and said he was "so proud" of all the work he had done before him.

Cllr Harris, who is district councillor for Abbey ward in the town, has been heavily involved in the local community for around 30 years, getting involved in campaigns and events across Cirencester.

He was president of Cirencester Chamber of Commerce for three years and has helped organise the annual Advent Festival at Christmas since 2001.

He now hopes he can build on the important work Cllr Joe Harris took on before him.

"I've always had my sleeves rolled up and got stuck in," said Cllr Mark Harris. "I think there are three main things I'd like to do during my time as mayor. One is bring the community even closer together with great events, partnerships, and of course the advent festival.

"Two, I just want to sort out dog fouling. It's driving me mad. A lot of people have told me it's really annoying them.

"And three, I want to see what we can do about parking in town. Maybe we can look at adding another deck to some of the car parks - in a tasteful way."

Outside of his mayoral duties, Cllr Harris owns a marketing company Tentacle PR and is also a member of The Abstracts - The Cotswold's Live Covers Band.

He says his passion is song-writing, and recently wrote the music for a video on YouTube which ended up receiving more than three million views.

The new mayor lives in Cirencester with his partner Joanna. He has three sons, Joe, 22, Tim, 20, and Peter, seven.

Last week the former mayor Joe Harris handed over the mayor's chain of office to Mark and said thank you to the town council for two great years as mayor.

"It has been a huge honour to serve the town," said Joe. He will remain on the town council and is also leader of the Liberal Democrats on Cotswold District Council.

Current Cirencester town councillor, and also Gloucestershire county councillor Nigel Robbins was appointed as deputy mayor, replacing Mark Harris.

"I'm particularly excited," he said on the night. "I hope I'll do my best for the town council and the town in the coming months."