The Mayor, Councillor Dine Romero
The Charter Trustees of the City of Bath formally elected Councillor Dine Romero to serve the Office of Mayor at their Annual Meeting & Election of Mayor Ceremony on Saturday 3 June 2023.
Dine was born in Hampton Court town, and spent her early years in London, growing up in Surrey, and then moving to Sussex as an adult. She had a range of jobs across a number of industries, including in travel, health, IT and furniture production.
She moved to Bath in 1995 and now has 3 children ranging in age from 17 through to 28 years old.
Alongside raising her children Dine successfully completed a BSc (Hons) in Natural Sciences with Biology, a BTEC in local governance, and then a Masters in Science both with the Open University.
Dine first stood for election in 2013, to Southdown, and has been re-elected every four years since then, mostly recently in May of this year.
Her political career has spanned much of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s work with roles in scrutiny, licensing, and planning. More recently she has twice been Cabinet lead for Children Services between which she was the Group Leader of the Liberal Democrat group and Council Leader between 2019 to 2021. She currently chairs of the Children and Adult Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Panel.
Her Mayoral theme for this coming year will focus on ‘The People of Bath: The Beating Heart of the City. ‘
Dine’s eldest daughter, Dr Isobel Romero-Shaw, will support her as Mayoress during the year.
Deputy Mayor, Councillor Dr Pankhania
The Charter Trustees of the City of Bath formally elected Councillor Dr Pankhania to serve the Office of Deputy Mayor at their Annual General Meeting and Election of Mayor Ceremony, held on Saturday 3 June 2023.
Dr Bharat Pankhania was elected to Bath and North East Somerset Council in 2019 to represent Combe Down Ward. In the new 2023 administration, he is supporting the Council Leader with Strategic Health Planning. Further to his academic and Public Health Medicine background he is the B&NES nominated Director at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute.
He was born in Kenya and came to the UK as a teenager living in Leicester, a hub for recent East African Asian immigrants. He read Medicine at the Welsh National School of Medicine. His first qualification was as a General Practitioner. Many postgraduate examinations and diplomas later he became a Consultant in Communicable Disease Control.
He is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at Exeter Medical School and a visiting Professor at Plymouth Marjon University.
As a well-known public health physician and academic, he is an expert in communicable disease control, particularly in the field of infectious disease management, emergency preparedness, teaching, and training.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bharat has been a prominent and respected voice in providing information and analysis on the pandemic and its control measures. He has appeared in media interviews, written articles, and participated in discussions to help educate the public about the importance of public health measures and vaccination. Some of his media contributions can be found at: https://youtube.com/c/DoctorBharatPankhania
Bharat is married to Alison, a Dentist, who he met at medical school. She will support him in her role as Deputy Mayoress. They have two children, India who is about to go to University and Arjuna who is at Ralph Allen Academy.