Brentwood Gazette editorial assistant Angela Burgess was given VIP treatment when she was invited to the local town hall as guest of borough mayor Margaret Brehaut.

The pair had tea and biscuits in the mayor’s parlour before Angela was given a tour of the civic headquarters, including the council chamber.

Although they have had lots of telephone conversations throughout the year, the two had never met until, with just a few weeks to the end of the mayor’s term of office, the special invitation was issued.

Angela said: “The mayor writes a column for the paper every fortnight and it is part of my job to make sure it is in the system on time. We had been promising to meet for months but never managed to get round to it until now.”

During their hour-long meeting, they chatted about their jobs, elections, the media and a host of other topics.

Angela added: “The mayor meets thousands of people in the course of the year and it was lovely that she found the time to do this.”

Brentwood Gazette managing editor Roger Watkins praised Angela as an excellent ambassador for the company.

He said: “And she’s got a good nose for news.

“She came back with two really good leads – one for a news story and one for a feature. That’s what I call dedication.”