The Civic Mayor of Tameside's Webcast and Christmas Message

Download the Civic Mayor of Tameside's Bi-Annual Speech and Christmas Message

Transcript

Hello everyone, thank you for joining my webcast.

I know a number of people follow my engagements each week through my mayoral blog, however, as I have now reached the half way mark in my term of office, I thought it would be nice to deliver a report and to speak briefly about some of the many wonderful events I have attended over the last few months.

Since our inauguration in May, Francoise and I, with the solid and unerring support of our deputies Sue and Kieran, have been extremely busy.

Between us we have so far conducted over two hundred and fifty engagements. Each engagement has been special and memorable in its own way and I can honestly say, we have enjoyed them all.

We have met so many different people from all walks of life. From the very young to the most senior of our senior citizens and it has been a joy and a privilege to meet them all. It is an extremely difficult task to pick out just some of the highlights of the year so far as I am sure you can imagine, but I’ll certainly give it my best shot.

One event that immediately springs to mind is my mayoral Procession and civic service. Thankfully, the weather stayed fine and many friends, colleagues and representatives of local organisations came out to support the occasion.

The day began with a procession from Hyde Park to St Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Newton, where we had a lovely civic service conducted by my chaplain, father Denis Maher. It really was a very proud day and an occasion which my family and I will remember always.

The day after the civic service, we set off for London, with Sue and Kieran, for the royal garden party. We had a superb time and as well as visiting Buckingham Palace, were also afforded the opportunity to look round the houses of parliament at the kind invitation of Andrew Gwynne MP.

In June, Francoise and I were very fortunate to visit Montigny-le-Bretonneux, Denton’s twin town in France, where we joined a delegation from Denton for the town’s festival of music and art.

The whole weekend was very well organised and we made some wonderful new friends. We felt especially privileged to be given a very comprehensive guided tour of Montigny by the mayor and his wife. This included a visit to his office in the 'Hotel de Ville' where we saw the original twinning charter between Denton and Montigny. There was a poignant moment when we saw the late Councillor Martin Wareing's signature on the charter, as the then president of the Denton twinning committee.

It was wonderful to be there in support of the people of Denton, who had travelled there to take part in the festival. We were treated with great respect and affection by the Mayor, Michel Laugier, his wife Agnes, and indeed everyone we met, and I was delighted to be asked to join him to release hundreds of celebratory helium filled balloons into the air at the closing ceremony.

Another memorable occasion was the opening of the Dukinfield Park steps. To mark the event, the district assembly had booked The Belle Vue Brass Band to provide music during the afternoon.

It was a lovely day and Francoise and I chatted with members of the public who were taking advantage of the glorious weather and were sat listening to the band. Quite unexpectedly, the musical director invited me up to conduct the band. As a one-time brass band player and conductor, I was delighted to accept, and took charge of the baton as the band played the popular march, ‘Slaidburn’.

Another great day was the borough’s Armed Forces Day event in Victoria Park in Denton, when Tameside joined the rest of the nation in giving thanks for past and continuing contributions made by our servicemen and women.

The event was very well attended by people of all ages and included a short service at the park’s war memorial and performances from the Adamson Military Band and a wartime tribute singer. There was even a huge temporary dance floor erected in the park where people could enjoy the performances and take the opportunity to join in with swing jive dancing.

On a sad note, I also recall attending the funeral of the late Corporal Joe Etchells with pride. You will recall that Joey or ‘Etch’ (as he was also known) was a Mossley lad, who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country back in July while serving in Afghanistan.

Whilst I remain on the theme of sadness for a moment, it was especially poignant too, to have had to attend the funeral of our dear friend, the late Cllr Martin Wareing in my role as Civic Mayor.

More recently I attended a thanksgiving service to celebrate the life and work of the late former Ashton Cllr Dorothy Parry.

Over the last few months, I have been delighted to visit several local businesses, churches and schools and it has been wonderful to receive guests here in the town hall and to try to make them feel that little bit special by inviting them into the Mayor’s parlour.

One such visit that stands out in my mind, was the visit by a group of 20 children from Belarus. The visit had been organised through the Chernobyl children lifeline - a charity which brings groups of children to England where they can breathe clean air and enjoy uncontaminated food and drink.

Research has shown that these visits, which take the young people away from the radiation effects still left over from the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster in 1989 can extend their lives by at least two years. They were an absolutely incredible group of children, so happy and cheerful in spite of their difficulties, and my heart went out to them

Over the past couple of weeks, Francoise and I have been busy with Remembrance Day events and of course with the Christmas Lights switch on ceremonies across the borough.

Christmas is such an exciting time of year and we have really enjoyed taking part in the festivities. As part of my fundraising efforts for the mayor’s charity, we held a really successful charity golf day at the beginning of October at Fairfield Golf and Sailing Club – my sincere thanks to Kieran for that.

I have a Christmas Concert scheduled to take place at Dukinfield Town Hall on the 16th December featuring the Ashton Band, and All Saints Community Choir, and of course, there is the Mayor’s Annual Valentine’s Ball planned for February, which I hope you will all be able to support.

It’s been quite an exasperating task to separate out just a few of the many functions we’ve attended so far, because in reality, each and every occasion has been just as special as the others - each in it’s own way.

What I can say is that the four of us have been particularly touched and hugely impressed by the enormous, yet largely hidden army of local volunteers that we’ve been privileged to come into contact with. Whether they be involved in the care of the sick or needy, generously donating their time in the selfless pursuit of enriching the lives of our young people, or those who take care of and nurture peoples’ interest in the rich historical and cultural dimension of this borough.

The world would be a far poorer place without these wonderful people. It’s been a real pleasure too, to welcome into the parlour a number of our own fantastic workforce to acknowledge the magnificent job they do, and to say a big thank you to them on behalf of all of us.

And as we move into the second half of our mayoral year, there is still lots more work to be done, many more people to meet and, even if it’s only a fraction as superb as the first half, so much more to look forward to.

Francoise, Sue, Kieran and I will continue to work hard over the coming months. We have tried to be good ambassadors for the council and for the borough and we hope the people of Tameside can be proud of what we have achieved to date and what we aim to achieve in the months ahead.

And that really brings me to the end of this webcast. Although I would just like to take this opportunity to offer my best wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful New Year and I ask you please to spare a thought this Christmas for all those who are far from home, including our servicemen and women who continue to face many dangers as they carry out their duties.

Thank you for joining me and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.