THE former head of the Bury Music Service has taken over as the new president of the Tottington and Bury West Rotary Club.

Paul Jarvis has taken over the reins from outgoing president, Pat Wall, and arrives on the back of a successful period for the club.

Club member Michael Pinder said: "Paul will be well known by many for his work with Bury Music Service.

"Arriving from Wolverhampton in 1986 as Head of Strings, he worked as a peripatetic teacher until 1993, when the Music Service was privatised and Paul became the Head of Service.

"He is a highly committed and conscientious Rotarian.

"We hope that he will be able to get stuck into the rigours of his year in office sooner rather than later."

In the past year, the club has welcomed several new members - a "phenomenal" achievement due to membership issues in clubs.

The club has also raised thousands of pounds for charity.

Michael added: "Since Lockdown things have been most unusual as has been the case with everything.

"All of our meetings have been conducted online via Zoom, including the Club Assembly at which the new president is installed.

"The outgoing President, Pat Wall, had set a number of targets at the start of his tenure, all of which had been met, despite the final quarter of the year being lost to Lockdown.

"One of these was to establish a link with an overseas Club which had been achieved by arranging a visit to Bury’s oldest twin town of Angoulême in south west France, where a joint international project was to be undertaken by our Club in conjunction with one from Angoulême."

Although the visit didn't take place due to the pandemic, the club is hoping to try its luck again next year.

Another target was to secure funding to enable the project to give Whitehead Gardens in Tottington a complete makeover.

This was achieved - with work to be carried out in the months ahead.