Strange things happen when that chain of office is first placed around the neck of an incoming mayor.

Maybe it's the weight of the office or the prospect of 365 days of fun-filled civic revelry but something definitely happens.  Previously modest and unassuming local councillors become power-crazed egotists whilst those with already well-developed egos just get a whole lot worse.  Some get so attached to the chain that handing it back at the following year's AGM can sometimes require surgical removal.

Of course the office of the ceremonial mayor in any local authority is a position of considerable dignity and gravitas.  It is often a reward for many years of diligent public service and is widely respected and valued by local people and communities.

Being the first citizen – even for only 12 months – is a real honour and most mayors I have known (and I have known dozens of them) work hard and uncomplainingly despite often punishing civic schedules.

It's a bit like being a member of the royal family for a year with all the fixed smiles, earnest questioning of worthy citizens and the ever-present threat of indigestion and obesity caused by too many buffet receptions and gala dinners.  It's not something I would care to do myself but surprisingly there never seems to be a shortage of candidates for taking on these onerous civic responsibilities.

But let's be honest – being treated like a minor monarch is more than most people can handle.  It knocks some people off their perch and causes them to act in strange ways.  

Based on my own lengthy experience, I can report that previous good behaviour is no guide to future conduct.  Indeed, it's often the quiet ones who get most carried away by their new-found celebrity status and make life impossible for those poor staffers who inhabit the mayoral offi ce.

I have known some mayors who insisted, against all the rules of protocol, on wearing the mayoral chain to private social events – what the reaction of customers in The Dog and Duck was to this ostentatious display was never reported back to me.

One insisted quite improperly on regular floral deliveries to their home address.  And others expected us to guarantee acres of favourable coverage in local newspapers while wasting money on self-promoting ‘charity' functions which raised little or nothing for good causes.

I have known new mayors take office and immediately demand that officers draft a formal town twinning agreement with their family's rural village in some far off land.

Naturally the intelligent offi cer response was to set up a working party which would consider the matter carefully for precisely 13 months – at which point the next mayor would have a different set of passions for officers to pursue and the matter would be quietly dropped.

I suppose it takes all sorts and all sorts is exactly what we get.

Gareth Daniel is former chief executive of Brent LBC