Labour’s David Burton-Sampson has been elected as the new mayor of Basildon Council during a crunch meeting tonight and has vowed to “restore democracy to the council”.

Mr Burton-Sampson took over as borough’s mayor after being voted in ahead of Conservative David Dadds.

His appointment comes the Conservatives lost overall control of the council and were unable to secure the role for Mr Dadds.

After being elected, Mr Burton-Sampson said: “This year I intend to bring back democracy to this council.

"Members, whether from the administration or from the opposition, can speak and represent the residents they have been elected to serve.”

He added that in the next 12 months his chosen charity to support is the Jo Cox Foundation and he will announce a specific project linked to this at the next full council meeting.

Outgoing mayor David Dadds spent a large amount of his time raising money for charity, with a focus on St Luke’s Hospice which had cared for his father before he passed away from lung cancer in 2015.

His biggest challenge came last month when he ran the London Marathon as part of the Mayor’s Charity Appeal.

Independent Derrick Fellowes was elected as deputy mayor.