When a councillor is not a councillor - yet

AFTER nearly a week of being the Taunton Deane councillor for the Blackdown ward, I have discovered that I am not your councillor even though I have been elected.
And, until I sign my declaration of acceptance office, I cannot become one.
Even after I sign my declaration, I still will not be a councillor for several more days.
This is because, technically, my predecessor remains the ward’s councillor until the council’s annual meeting on May 16.
I was supposed already to have signed my declaration, but the council suddenly cancelled the appointment while I was en route to Taunton.
It has now been rearranged for Thursday, May 10, exactly a week after you all went to the polls to show your support for me.
If I do not sign the declaration in time, I will not be allowed to attend the annual meeting.
I am not sure at present whether or not I can attend the meeting anyway, as I am working away and will find it difficult to return in time.
For those who are interested in these things, an analysis of the election results has been carried out and I am pleased to announce that all the hard work put in by the Conservative team on the Blackdowns over the past months and years resulted in us increasing our share of the vote to 63 per cent.
There was a 7.2 per cent swing in voting away from the Lib Dems toward the Conservatives in the Blackdown ward, which was the second highest swing in the whole of the Deane.
Although turnout in the ward overall was slightly lower - a fact which I attribute in large part to not having enough parish councillors in any of my three parishes to warrant an election and generate greater incentive for people to travel the sometimes several miles to a polling station - it should be heartening to us that we are continuing to build on the staunch Conservative support which exists on the hills.
Please note, if you previously read this posting and my comments about the Mayor-making ceremony, I have now deleted these references as I have since been informed that I was wrong. In essence, I was given to believe that the public could not attend unless they were a guest of a councillor. I am now told the public can turn up unannounced and attend, even though the ceremony is taking place in a Royal Marines base with all the attendant security. I apologise if, unintentionally, I have misled any readers.