An openly gay man and former amateur boxer[1] he was elected on 5 May 2005, for the Labour Party, and defeated incumbent independent Mike Wolfe.
He returned to the City Council as a Councillor for the Birches Head and Central Forest Park ward at the 2011 local elections serving until his defeat in 2015.
A local businessman in the Stoke-on-Trent town of Hanley since 1991, he was selected as Labour's mayoral candidate in December 2004, defeating four others to win the nomination.
In July 2007 Meredith formed a de facto executive model for Stoke-on-Trent City Council of Mayor and Cabinet in all but name.
[2] As a result of the referendum the position of directly elected mayor was abolished as of 5 June 2009, when Meredith's term of office ended.
The police inquiry was focused on the city council's attempts to close the splash pool at Dimensions Leisure Centre, in Burslem, the previous year.