Nottingham’s two civic dignitaries for the next 12 months have been inaugurated into office.
The new Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Councillor Mohammed Saghir, (above), and the new Sheriff of Nottingham, Councillor Jackie Morris, were elected at Nottingham City Council’s annual meeting earlier today. Their election means a switch in roles for the civic dignitaries. Councillor Saghir was Sheriff and Councillor Morris was Lord Mayor last year.
Councillor Saghir was born in January 1957 in Chak Haryam in Kashmir and attended an English school in Kashmir before moving to Britain at the age of 10. After attending Fairfax Grammar School in Bradford he pursued a career in engineering, including a six year spell working in Denmark.
He moved to Nottingham in 1990 to marry his wife, Zahid. Saghir and his wife had three children – two daughters now aged 15 and 25, and a son, who sadly died as a baby.
After settling in Nottingham Saghir worked for a local security firm. He joined the Labour Party in 1990 and soon became chair of his local party branch. He was elected councillor for Leen Valley in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. He is chair of West (Area 3) Committee and a member of the City Council’s Licensing Committee and Regulatory and Appeals Committee.
The Sheriff of Nottingham’s role is a familiar one to Jackie Morris, who was Sheriff from May 2014 to May 2015.
Born and brought up in Bulwell, Jackie attended Quarry Road, Coventry Road and Blenheim Girl’s Schools. She moved to London after she married and her daughter Michelle was born there. She then moved to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where she owned a guest house and worked in a hospital during the winter months, and her second child, Andrew, was born.
Jackie returned to Bulwell in 1971 and worked as a nurse at the City and Highbury Hospitals. She met her present husband, Andy, in 1979 and married in 1983. Both Jackie and Andy trained at St John’s Theological College in Bramcote. Jackie is licensed as a reader in the Anglican Church and is trained and has worked as a youth worker and Andy is Vicar of St Matthew’s and St Philip’s in Bestwood.
A City Councillor for Bulwell, Jackie has served as an executive assistant, worked on the Fire Authority, is on the Licensing Committee, the Corporate Parenting Board and has served as Area committee chair. She is also on the Regulatory and Appeals Committee and the Pension and Investments Committee.
She is passionate about the River Leen and Bulwell Bogs and was a founder member of the Friends of Bulwell Bogs.