A FAMILIAR face is wearing the mayoral chain at an East Yorkshire town as Coun Stephen King became Market Weighton's town mayor for the 14th time.

Coun King, of Springdale Road, Market Weighton, was re-elected as mayor at the annual town council meeting. This year will be his 13th year in a row wearing the chains and his 14th time overall.

Officers at East Riding of Yorkshire Council have told the town council that Coun King could be the only mayor in the country to have served so many terms.

Coun King said: "It is certainly unique for Market Weighton, if not the country."

He said that each year he had been nominated and elected by the councillors and he did not know why he had been chosen so many times.

"Either I do a very good job or no-one else wants to do it. I think it is somewhere in between those two things," he said.

Coun King, who runs his own land-use consultancy business, said the best part of being mayor was being involved in the regeneration of Market Weighton.

He said: "Market Weighton is certainly improving. If at the end of my term of office I can say I have had a hand in improving the town's image, I will be pleased."

He added that he did not know whether he would become mayor for a 15th time, but he has not ruled out the possibility.

"I don't presume I will be mayor," he said.

"It is a new election every 12 months."

Updated: 09:13 Thursday, May 22, 2003