Mayor of Worcester Blog

Plenty of variety this week! Unveiling statues, flag flying, commemorating a fire and a battle, attending a carnival, receiving a charity donation and planning future events.

Works of art are always a bit like marmite – loved or disliked – and our new Cornmarket statues will be no different. They certainly add interest to the area and everyone who spoke to me at the unveiling ceremony liked them. The level of detail is amazing and it is good that the people represented were chosen by local people.

We travelled to the London last week to be received by the Lord Mayor who thanked Worcester people for £230 13s 9d given to their citizens after the Great Fire in 1666. Worcester was a much smaller place then, so it is remarkable that we were able to provide the equivalent of over £100,000 in today’s money. The fire made 65,000 people homeless, but Worcester’s generosity helped to rebuild the place. What a contrast today to visit the Lord Mayor’s magnificent Mansion House home, opposite the Bank of England.  This area now has the greatest concentration of wealth in this country.

I was proud to raise the Red Ensign over our Guildhall on Merchant Navy Day (3rdSeptember). This date also marks the start of the Second World War when thousands of merchant seamen died on ships sunk by enemy submarines. It is important to remember their sacrifice.

Later, we attended Stourport Carnival where large crowds enjoyed the floats and entertainment despite the rain. What a pity that our own carnival was cancelled.

In the evening, we processed to the Commandery and Fort Royal Hill for a service to commemorate the 365th anniversary of the Battle of Worcester.

Back in the parlour I thanked Individual Tailoring for their generous donation from a raffle for my charities. We also met the charities to plan future events, about which I’ll say more later.

August is traditionally a quieter month for the mayor and mayoress, but Lynn and I have had a fairly busy week.

We attended a consultation about tourism and were pleased to learn that many local people, organisations and businesses want to see Worcester attract more visitors. There were plenty of ideas and I think that councillors from all parties will try to develop them.

Having visited St Richard’s Hospice some weeks ago, I was delighted to welcome some of their patients for tea and coffee and a tour of the Guildhall. It was good to hear my visitors’ recollections of what our city was like when they were younger.

On Friday evening, Lynn accompanied me to The Horn and Trumpet in Angel Place. A charity karaoke night and raffle raised money for Crohns disease and colitis. The event was supported by Santander Bank which generously doubled the cash raised. These conditions cause their many sufferers regular discomfort, inconvenience and sometimes embarrassment because the intestine becomes inflamed. Surgery and medication help to control the situation but there is not yet any cure.

We visited the Worcester Arts Workshop Open Day on Saturday and were impressed by the wide range of artistic activities on offer. Next we welcomed French visitors from Vernon in Normandy to the parlour, hosted by the Twinning Association. I was interested to learn that there was a direct connection between the Vernon family in our county and the eponymous French town.

In the evening, the Heraldry Congress was held with a banquet and exhibition at the University, and we were very happy to attend. Worcester received a prestigious heraldry award a few months ago and we were delighted that this national organisation chose to hold their event in our city.

One of many pleasures of being your Mayor is that I receive many visitors to The Guildhall.  Groups of local schoolchildren, charities and clubs and overseas visitors marvel at this Grade one listed building and love to hear about its history. They are always impressed by the paintings hanging from the walls and, most of all, by the magnificent ceiling and chandeliers in the Assembly Room.  There is only a handful of other places in this country where it is possible to view a ceiling of the same style, and you have to pay to see them. Ours is the only one which is free!

Many Worcester residents have never been inside our Assembly Room, and I would encourage you to visit with your families and friends. After all, if you are a city council taxpayer, you are paying for it!

I was delighted to invite Fred and Pat Gowenlock.for afternoon tea in the Parlour. Fred has been a very active member of the Salvation Army for many years and was the council’s contact there. Fred shared with me some of the history of the “Sally Army” in Worcester, including a story about an officer imprisoned in the Guildhall cells for three nights!  Thank God their band still plays on our High Street. Christmas would not be the same without it.

Lynn and I enjoyed meeting a group of young people from city high schools, who were about to finish two weeks of voluntary service. These fantastic people completed a challenge from the National Citizen Service and have raised several hundreds of pounds for Acorns Children’s Hospice.

A group of residents in Vauxhall Street invited us to join their barbecue on Saturday. The weather could have been brighter, but it stayed dry. It was good to relax and chat to people in my Rainbow Hill ward; we thank David Kemp for his hospitality.

I hope everyone in Worcester will share my pride that two Paralympic UK teams are based in our city. In a few days, the men’s and women’s National Wheelchair Basketball Teams will be heading for Rio!

I was delighted to host a reception in The Guildhall on Wednesday to meet all 24 squad members and their support team to give them a great Worcester send-off. These are world-class athletes who train hard and have been very successful so far – the men’s team won the European Championships last year here in Worcester and we all hope they will win Paralympic medals in Rio and give us even more cause to celebrate their success.

The University of Worcester Arena is the teams’ home base and the university is to be congratulated for having the vision to build this world class centre of excellence for disability sport. I’m really looking forward to watching our own national teams taking on the rest of the world, which should be beamed back from Rio on Channel 4.

It was also great to open two events during the week, which are now well-established on our city’s calendar. The Worcester Festival started on Saturday, with 380 events planned to take place in 33 venues until 29 August. Two-thirds of these events are free and most of the rest cost less than £5 so there is plenty for everyone to enjoy. Many events are for children and will keep them occupied during the summer holiday.

On Sunday, in fine and sunny weather, the Worcester Show took place in our award-winning Gheluvelt Park. Bigger and better than ever, the show had around 1,100 competition entries of magnificent vegetables and fruit and there were 160 local exhibitors. More than 10,000 adults and children visited the show and it was a great honour to both open it and to present the prizes.