Pam Siggers elected new Mayor of Didcot

Councillor Pam Siggers, who has lived in the town since 2005, took over from Councillor Mocky Khan as mayor last week.

She said her goal as mayor is to “get out there and represent Didcot the best that [she] can” while raising money for her two charities, Home-Start and Wynters Wish.

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Originally from Manchester, Dr Siggers first moved to Oxfordshire in 1998 to work at Oxford University as a technician.

Pam Siggers took over from Mocky Khan who has now become leader of the council

After eight and a half years, she became a research associate at Harwell before completing her PHD and becoming a post-doctoral researcher.

She was there for 25 years and during that time moved to Didcot and became a councillor. At the end of 2021, her unit closed and she took redundancy and retrained as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities.

She said: “I moved to Didcot in 2005 because I have two young girls and I wanted them to go to Didcot Girls School.

“I became a councillor in September 2017 as I was interested in politics and then I became more interested in local politics especially with the new houses coming and the lack of infrastructure and GP surgeries.

“You feel a bit powerless when you’re just a person in the street. You think, ‘How can I influence anything?’ That’s the reason why I got into local politics.”

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"I hope to get out there and represent Didcot the best I can"

During her time on the council, Dr Siggers helped reopen the Willowbrook Leisure Centre after it closed due to financial pressures caused by coronavirus pandemic, got solar panels installed on council-owned buildings and named streets in Ladygrove North East after female scientists.

“I had to fight for that,” she said. “Councillors said it should be 50/50 but I thought there were already a lot of streets named after men so I was really proud of that. We have Franklin Avenue, Beddington Avenue and Lyon Close.

“I was also a part of the group who held a public meeting about in 2018 about the lack of GP surgeries and we involved the OCG and stakeholders to come along and talk to residents.

“It pushed into the public domain and I’m pleased we set that in motion.”

Dr Siggers has also sat on the planning and development committee, chaired the property and facilities committee and vice-chaired the finance and general purposes committee and helped increase its grant funding limit from 39k to 45k.

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She said: “My main aim this year is raising money for my charities and take on as many mayoral duties as I can”.

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