Winchester Rotary has appointed a new president for the next year. 

On Tuesday 26 June, the final meeting of the 2022-23 Rotary year, retiring president Deborah Macartney passed the chain of office to Les Haswell, who takes over after previously holding the post in 2018-19.  

During her year as club president, Winchester Rotary raised more than £25,000 for Deborah’s chosen charities - Trinity Centre’s women’s services and the Hope Street project, which is managed by the charity One Small Thing.

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Les, a retired business consultant originally from Scotland, moved to Kings Worthy in 2012 with his wife Val.  

He said: “I am both honoured and grateful for the opportunity to serve the club for the second time. I have said that as president I will try to promote increased opportunities for social contact between members, by integrating the traditional evening dinner meetings with a more relaxed and informal atmosphere. This will hopefully make it easier for non-member volunteers and supporters of rotary to get involved and support our projects, maybe even introduce some ideas of their own. My hope is that this will help to build and grow Winchester Rotary ensuring that it is still here supporting the community for many years to come.”