Mayor's Blog December 2009
Mayoral Blog 2009/10
Councillor John B. Sullivan JP, GNSM, LTCL
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Well Christmas is almost here. In fact this will be my last Blog until the New Year. I can’t believe how quickly the last few months have flown by but as the saying goes ‘time flies when you’re having a good time’ and, as I’m sure you all know by now, Francoise and I are loving every single minute of our year in office.
To start my engagements off this week, I was invited to Tameside College 
on Monday morning to attend a ceremony to formally welcome a Buddha statue to it’s temporary home there. The college has been very successful in establishing cultural and educational links across the world, including with Thailand and now has several international students. To be chosen to provide a home for the statue is a great honour for the college and I felt very privileged to be given the opportunity to take part in the ceremony and to offer my good wishes.
In the evening, Francoise and I were delighted to be able to welcome members of the Hyde District Assembly staff to the Mayor’s Parlour. The whole team works incredibly hard throughout the year and provides wonderful support to me in my role as Chairman of the DA. It was a pleasure to be able to host a small reception in their honour as a thank you for their efforts.
On Tuesday night, we visited St Ann’s Church in Manchester for the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service Annual Christmas Carol Service. It was a lovely evening and we were pleased to offer our support.
On Wednesday afternoon, I joined the Hyde DA team at Hyde Town Hall for our very first Senior Citizens Christmas Party. The event was the idea of Councillor Helen Bowden who had taken a lead role in organising the activities. Everybody had a wonderful time and my thanks go to Helen and to all the people who worked so hard to make the party a success.
From here, I travelled over to Joseph Jennings Court in Ashton for a 25th anniversary celebration. It was lovely to meet the residents, especially those who have lived at the scheme from the start and I was pleased to be able to offer my good wishes and congratulations to them on this very special occasion. I was particularly pleased to bump into an old work colleague of Francoise, Barbara, who has been living at the te Court for the last five years.
In the evening, Francoise and I hosted a Christmas Concert at Dukinfield Town Hall in aid of my Charity Appeal Fund and what a fabulous night it was! The event featured the celebrated Ashton Brass Band and the very talented All Saints Community Choir and together they provided a truly magical Christmas performance. The hall was full, the standard of musicianship and entertainment was superb and most importantly we managed to raise a staggering £754.60 for the Mayor’s Charity! My sincere thanks go to everybody who supported the occasion and especially to the Ashton Brass Band and the choirs from All Saints Catholic College in Dukinfield, St James’s Catholic Primary School in Hattersley and St Peter’s Catholic Primary School in Stalybridge, who collectively were the All Saints Community Choir. Special mention must be made of Martyn Evans, the Musical Director of the band, whose expertise and strong leadership ensured a truly top rate performance. Similarly, my extra special thanks and admiration go to Mrs Sue Porter, Head of Music at All Saints, who in spite of a terribly busy schedule, especially just before Christmas, agreed to put the choir together and produce such amazing results. The standard, was at least comparable to that of an excellent choir drawn from many schools across a large Borough!
It wouldn’t be right to end this section without expressing my sincere gratitude and huge respect to our wonderful Tameside Mayoral Staff. Joanne, Peter, David and Niel are the backbone of the Mayoralty in Tameside. They never cease to amaze me with their ability to multitask to the most extraordinary degree, and to display the ability to adapt to the individual traits, wishes and idiosyncrasies of the different Mayors they have to work with each year - including me! This is of course in addition to performing the extremely specialised duties which allow the Mayor to apparently glide effortlessly from engagement to hugely varied engagement on a day by day basis, and often under difficult conditions. Organising and running a concert of the magnitude of the Christmas Charity Concert we held last Wednesday would justifiably be seen as an activity which could only be effected by a specialised company or team, but they all performed magnificently, without complaint, in good humour, and they did a magnificent job!
On Thursday, I was pleased to be able to record a Christmas message for the listeners of the Tameside Talking News before attending a Citizenship Ceremony at Dukinfield Town Hall. Unfortunately towards the end of the ceremony, I began to feel unwell with this dreadful stomach bug that seems to be doing the rounds and sadly ended up having to cancel my engagements for the remainder of the day and for Friday and Sunday too.
My apologies go to all the people who were unfortunately disappointed by my absence. Everybody has been very kind and understanding but I was really upset not to be able to attend my engagements.
And that concludes my engagements for 2009.
Francoise and I will be taking some time off over the holidays so we take this opportunity to extend our good wishes to you all for a very merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year. We look forward to seeing you again in 2010.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Best wishes
Hello everyone,
Mayoral engagements have been really busy this week as Christmas quickly approaches.
On Monday, it was my pleasure to welcome to the Town Hall Margaret Foster from Dukinfield, the winner of the Council’s Electoral Registration Draw and to present her with her cheque for £300. Margaret was delighted with her prize which I am sure will prove very useful for Christmas.
Later, I attended the official reopening of Hyde Leisure Pool following its recent £1.9 million refurbishment programme. Originally built in 1988, the centre was in need of various upgrades and extensive repairs to the roof. As part of the refurbishment, the venue now has a new entrance and visitors can enjoy a brand new red ripster aqua slide!
On Tuesday morning, I visited Hattersley Community Centre to join local schoolchildren at a fabulous performance of the Pantomime “Mother Goose” and later I called in very briefly at a Senior Citizens Christmas Party organised by the local Councillors of Denton West Ward. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay very long but the party was going with a swing and everybody was having a great time.
From here, I travelled to Ashton Town Hall to host a Reception in the Mayor’s Parlour for the Council’s Customer Service Excellence Champions where I was delighted to have the opportunity once again to say thank you and well done to yet another team of dedicated and hard working Tameside employees.
Francoise joined me in the Town Hall at tea time and together we hosted a Christmas Party for Tameside Young Carers. It was wonderful to see these young people letting their hair down and enjoying the occasion which included Christmas cocktails, a disco, party food and even a visit from Father Christmas!
On Wednesday, I headed back over to Hattersley where I had a super time at the annual Senior Citizens Christmas Party organised by the Hattersley and Mottram Safety Team and the Hattersley Forum Community Association and from here, I visited Holme Lea Care Home in Stalybridge. The home has recently been refurbished and to mark the occasion, the Manager and her team kindly organised an Open Day. The residents and staff made me feel very welcome and it was lovely to meet everyone and to see the improvements that have been made.
On Wednesday evening, Francoise and I attended a ‘Singing for your heart’ Concert at Ashton Town Hall. It was a super evening which included performances by the Tameside Junior Singers, Tameside Harmonies, Tameside Gospel Singers and the Council’s Singing for Health and Enjoyment Group. There was also a special performance by the Deputy Chief Executive, Mirriam Lawton accompanied on the piano by yours truly!
On Thursday I was pleased to attend an event at the Probin Mela Luncheon Club in Hyde. The club was founded 22 years ago and provides a meal each Thursday for the older men from the local Bangladeshi Community. Away from the Mayoralty, I am also Deputy Chair of the club and therefore it gave me great pleasure to be able to attend this event and offer my support and congratulations.
In the evening, Francoise and I were invited to the annual Greater Manchester Police Force Christmas Celebration at Manchester Evening. It was a lovely service and included some superb performances from the GMP Band, the Larks of Dean Quire and vocalist Sue Hulme who works in the Operational Communications Branch.
On Friday, it was my pleasure to unveil the historical Red Hall Chapel date stone in the dry stone wall surrounding the reservoirs in Audenshaw. Red Hall Chapel was actually demolished in September 2007and replaced by the new Trinity Church. Thanks to the dedication and determination of members of the Audenshaw Local History Society, the date stone, together with the Chapel sign, was rescued and can now be found in the wall, directly opposite where the chapel once stood.
From here, I travelled over to Stalybridge Celtic Football Club to attend a Blue Plaque unveiling in honour of William Herbert Rhodes, the founder of the club. The unveiling ceremony was conducted by the Executive Leader of the Council and President of Stalybridge Celtic FC, Councillor Roy Oldham CBE.
On Friday evening, Francoise and I had a wonderful night at Hyde Town Hall at a concert featuring the Houghton Weavers and Mossley Band. The event was the final concert in the Hyde Live Winter Series organised by the Town’s District Assembly. Once again, the event was full to capacity and everybody had a brilliant evening.
On Saturday night, we headed over to the George Lawton Hall in Mossley at the invitation of Mossley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society for their production of “Footloose The Musical”. Based on the hit 80’s movie, it was a fabulous show with some fantastic numbers and, as always, the cast were brilliant.
Sunday was a really busy and very festive day. It started with `Christmas in Granada Park in Denton ‘. A good, traditional family event organised by the Friends of the Park. The day included carol singing, Santa’s Grotto and lots of stalls and activities for the whole family to enjoy.
Francoise and I then attended the annual Willow Wood Hospice `Light up a Life’ Service at the Albion United Reformed Church in Ashton-under-Lyne. The hospice has ran the Light up a Life Appeal for a number of years now and its success is really quite overwhelming. Christmas can be a very sad and emotional time of year as we remember loved ones that we have lost or that cannot be with us. The ‘Light up a Life’ Appeal, enables people to dedicate a Christmas tree light in memory of their loved one to help them feel close at Christmas time. There are now six special ‘Light up a Life’ trees in Tameside and one in Glossop. The service brings together all those people who have dedicated a Christmas tree light and is, as I am sure you can imagine, a very meaningful and emotional event.
And as the service came to an end, we travelled over to Yew Tree Community Centre in Denton for their annual Christmas Carol Service. The event was well attended with a wonderful community spirit and everybody was in fine voice.
For our final engagement of the day, we were delighted to attend the Denton and District Inskip League Christmas Party at the Lowes Arms in Denton. Francoise and I were made to feel very welcome and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
Our thanks go to everybody who has helped make our week so enjoyable. We have met many wonderful people and we have been looked after so well and, although it has been busy, everyday has been special and every engagement has meant a great deal to us both.
We are now half way through our Mayoral year and you may be interested to learn that I have recorded a webcast to include a résumé of some the wonderful events we have attended over the last few months. I hope you have the opportunity to take a look.
Thank you once again and I'll see you all soon.
Best wishes.