About the Mayor
The Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane 2021/22 is Cllr Onnalee Cubitt
Mayor's biography
Councillor Onnalee Cubitt loves Basingstoke and Deane and considers it a tremendous honour to represent the borough as Mayor for 2021/22.
Onnalee grew up in Weston Patrick and has spent most of her life in Basingstoke and Deane. She has been a borough councillor since 2008.
Onnalee and her husband Hugo live in Up Nately and are very blessed to be surrounded by family. They have two children. Billy is 21 years old and reading engineering at Balliol College, Oxford. Summer is 19 years old and reading accounting and finance at Oxford Brookes University.
After leaving school, Onnalee was a voluntary worker in Sri Lanka for a year with Project Trust, teaching English and Mathematics in Jeevani, an orphanage in Moratuwa.
Onnalee holds a joint Anglo-French BA Hons degree in European Business Studies and a Diplome d'Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Reims, ESC Reims.
Onnalee joined Standard Chartered Bank as a graduate trainee in 1988 and spent the next 14 years based in London in international finance, where she also worked for a couple of other banks. Onnalee returned to Standard Chartered Bank in 1997 to be Head of Loan Syndications, running a multi-national team covering Africa, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and Europe.
In 2001, Onnalee and Hugo came back to live in Basingstoke and Deane and founded a local building company specialising in restoration and extensions to period properties in Hampshire, Berkshire and London.
Onnalee and Hugo have been extensively involved with fundraising for a number of charities over the years, including St Michael's Hospice and the Army Benevolent Fund.
Most recently, Onnalee and Hugo spearheaded and ran a successful campaign to raise £550,000 for the Piam Brown Ward, the children's cancer ward in University Hospital Southampton, where their daughter Summer spent three years being treated for T Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. The staff at both Piam Brown Ward and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital were outstanding.
Onnalee has been a board member of Loddon Social Enterprise Ltd for over 12 years. It is a wonderful charity which provides a safe working environment for adults with learning disabilities who require training in a workplace environment. She was also a local education authority governor of Dove House School, an outstanding local special educational needs secondary school, for a number of years before it became an academy.
In her spare time, Onnalee is a portrait artist specialising in charcoal.
Onnalee and Hugo very much look forward to representing our wonderful borough and to being the Mayor and Mayor's Consort for this civic year.
Onnalee says: “I totally love Basingstoke and Deane and we are really looking forward to meeting as many local people as possible in the year ahead.”
The Mayor’s theme for 2021–2022
To encourage local adults to volunteer as cadet leaders, after seeing the difference being a cadet can make to young people.
Businesses are also being encouraged to give their staff time to volunteer and to promote the opportunity to their employees, as this can also have advantages for their organisation.
People interested in being a volunteer need no military experience or qualifications as full training will be given. If you or your organisation would like to know more about volunteering as a cadet leader please email mayor@basingstoke.gov.uk.
About the Mayor Cllr Cubitt - brochure 2021/22(PDF) [372 kb]
Consort
Hugo was born in Hampshire and moved to Ireland a year later. He was brought up on a farm in Tipperary and went to St Columba's College, set in the Dublin Hills. He moved to London in 1985.
Hugo spent his first 10 years working in client services at one of the major auction houses in London. He then went on to run a refurbishment programme for a London-based international property company. In 2001, he moved back to Hampshire to establish and run a building company specialising in restoration and extensions to period properties in Hampshire, Berkshire and London.
Throughout his career, Hugo has been involved in various charitable fundraising endeavours, including spearheading and running a campaign with Onnalee which raised over £550,000 for the Piam Brown Ward, the children's cancer ward at University Hospital Southampton. In 2017, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire, supporting and promoting the Lieutenancy in Hampshire and representing the Lord Lieutenant in performing public duties when required.
Hugo is also chairman of Mapledurwell and Up Nately Parish Council, and has been treasurer of St Stephen's Church, Up Nately, since 2008.
The Deputy Mayor
The Mayor asks the Deputy Mayor to stand in if the Mayor is not available.
The Deputy Mayor for 2021/22 is Cllr Paul Miller.