Mayor of Worcester Blog

A busy and interesting week, it started with a tour of Acorns Hospice which, whilst very sad, was certainly inspiring.  The facilities, colour schemes and architecture are superb, providing support, engagement and comfort for the residents, and the staff are incredibly committed and caring.  It is ten years since Acorns opened and the gardens are becoming quite mature; there are areas of fun, colour and solace and walking around the grounds one feels as if one is away from everything, no hint that the location is in that of a city!

The Mayoress and I had the opportunity to visit ASPIE, a social self-help and motivation group for adults with Asperger’s Syndrome, providing a drop-in point and place of comfort.  ASPIE was founded in 2011 by the late Sarah Micklewright with the aim of providing a place where Aspies can meet one another and the good work is now continue by her mother, Julia.

The theme of “good work” continued when Harry Turner, Chairman of Worcestershire NHS Trust, allowed us an opportunity of being shown around the new Oncology Unit and the new Birthing Unit, both of which were amazing.  It didn’t feel like a normal hospital environment as it was so colourful, light and beautifully designed.  Encouragingly we saw the plans to extend the A&E Department and to further extend the car parking facilities. This is one hospital that is reaching out and succeeding, to improve services and facilities, giving patient stays a more beneficial outcome and making them a more pleasant experience.
The finale of our visit to the Worcester Royal was to meet and thank the volunteers who so admirably support the work of our hospital staff and management.  They are a great group of people who deserve our praise and thanks. So much more is achieved because of them!

It was a pleasure to attend the 800th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Charter being granted to Droitwich by King John in 1215, with a re-enactment of the King’s visit to the town.  The charter gave the burghers the right to produce and market salt from the remarkable natural brine springs which emanate from subterranean beds of pure rock salt 200 feet below ground level.

Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and the re-enactment was great fun. I’m not too sure about the authenticity of King John arriving on a canal barge, but it added an additional fun element to the day.
The Worcester Foodie Festival was great. We had 60 stalls of which 25 were city centre businesses and many others were suppliers to city centre businesses.  15 businesses are signed up to our Food and Drink trail with 20 running activities, offers and competitions. As part of the Foodie Fortnight which runs until 9 August we have 10 businesses running ‘Breakfast Club’ offers and 12 doing the same for Lunch. 12 are also doing either a special £5 or £10 menu. The aim of the Foodie Fortnight is to get people to venture into places they might not have tried before and do so without needing to doing on the Foodie Festival weekend when it will be busy anyway.

Footfall in the High Street was up by some 45% – now that’s what Icall a success story!

Anecdotal feedback from the traders and the public has been fantastic with a wonderful atmosphere and Jean-Christophe Novelli ‘stirring’ up a frenzy to melt the hearts of some Mademoiselles who met him during and after his Masterclass sessions.

The last evening of the 2015 Three Choirs Festival was marked with a reception in the Bishop’s Palace Garden in Hereford, a delightful setting by the riverside bathed in sunshine and set amongst some glorious trees.

The Three Choirs Festival is a national treasure, champions of the British choral tradition; it represents the greatest and largest works in classical music night after night during a festival which has been a spiritual presence at the heart of the nation’s cultural life for 300 years.  Look here for more information:- http://www.3choirs.org/

Once again it was great to see just how much volunteers and voluntary organisations contribute to our life in the City. Worcester Lions Club Grant Awards evening highlighted a number of groups who had successfully bid for grants to help their work to continue; it was an impressive evening demonstrating a wide range of activities. These charitable organisations can be said to be the mortar that holds together the bricks of our society here in Worcester.

Last Friday some 70 Italian students visited the Guildhall and they were a very lively lot! The last group were from Sorrento and were a pleasure to talk to – we discussed both Worcester and their home town, which I know quite well. It’s always easier when you have something in common and talking about my memories of their home really broke down the barriers.

This year was Hereford’s turn to host The Three Choirs’ Festival and the Mayoress and I had a very enjoyable visit there; we were both made to feel very welcome – as were the City Council’s Mace Bearers and of course, Frank, our Sword Bearer.

BBC Hereford and Worcester radio held a household waste and recycling event in Crown Gate Shopping Centre earlier this week, where they asked shoppers questions about their recycling habits and challenged them to select the correct bin into which the waste material should go. It was interesting to watch and confirmed the need for more information to help our residents recycle more.

A number of issues came to light – for example a number of passersby said they place their recycling in the green bin already bagged up, when actually it should be placed loose in the bin. Cans and containers should be rinsed out to avoid smells and to improve the quality of the recyclate material – not to mention the working conditions at the Norton Recycling Facility where clean material is so much more pleasant to handle.

Waste should of course be separated where materials are mixed – for example cellophane should be removed from card or paper and placed in the general waste (black) bin and tops removed from milk bottles and similar containers. Cardboard should always go in the green bin, together with any kind of paper. Where families need more recyclate capacity an additional green bin may be requested; this does not apply to the black bins as this would be contrary to the goal of reducing the volume of household waste to landfill. So if you need more green bin capacity, ring The Hub on 01905 722233 and request an additional bin.

 

It’s been a quieter week, for which I was grateful as it allowed a little space to deal with a very sad family matter. However, it’s still been quite lively, starting with a Rotary lunch at the Cricket Club during which I was enrolled as an Honoury Member. Rotary do some remarkable work in Worcester and the Mayoress and I have attended a number of school events where Rotary members have committed considerable amounts of their time and resource to help children express themselves through speech and poetry. They quite often roll their sleeves up and really get stuck in on projects, an example being the creation of the children’s garden at Holly Mount School.

This year’s outdoor production of Shakespeare, A Comedy of Errors, took place in the garden of the Commandery. Unfortunately we managed to pick the only evening during the week when the weather wasn’t good. It drizzled and drizzled but it was still a very enjoyable evening; the casting was superb, the performance great and, even in the rain the ambiance was just so good. A production masterminded by Ben Humphrey and as always, with these outdoor performances, the audience just loved it. Put a date in the diary for next year, it’s a great evening out!

The annual service on St Swithun’s Day in St Swithun’s church, just off the Trinity, is an interesting event. The church is one of few that have a Mayor’s chair and above it, to the rear, is a rack to hold Worcester’s Sword of State. The chair is set at a forty five degree angle to the congregation leaving one with a rather exposed feeling – and it’s designed for a very tall person! The bells are now back in order and sounded very good, much to the pleasure of Stephen Inman, a former Mayor, who campaigned for the restoration of church bells across the City.

The Mayor’s Banquet was a great success, even if I do say so myself! The setting, in the Assembly Room on the top floor, is always excellent and this year the flowers, guests and food were all exceptional. The Deputy Mayor, Mike Whitehouse; Deputy Leader, Marc Bayliss and Ben Humphrey all gave great speeches. The evening was based on a Celebration of Worcester and Ben gave an extremely informative and entertaining talk on the history of Worcester; he had all those present in the palm of his hand. A really enjoyable evening!

Frankie Tsang, owner of Worcester’s Four Seasons restaurant, was one of 150 guests at the Mayor’s Banquet.

Both tourists and residents will now be able to learn more of Worcester’s past as Blue Plaques are appearing all over the City denoting sites where significant events have taken place – as well as the renewal of the plaques showing the location of the old City gates back in the times when Worcester was a walled city. Thanks to the Worcester Civic Society together with the Milestone Society, we have a bronze plaque to mark the position in Worcester of the original Old Cross – and the Civic Society has also unveiled the blue plaque in honour of John Williams (1773-1853) at Pitmaston House in Malvern Road, St John’s.

For cricket lovers there is now a plaque to mark the formation of Worcestershire County Cricket Club which occurred at Whitehouse Hotel 150 years ago, then named the Star Hotel, and is now on view to the general public to admire after being unveiled on the Foregate Street wall of the Whitehouse Hotel.

On the subject of visitors, we have had the pleasure of receiving well over a hundred foreign students at the Guildhall in just one week alone. They came from Germany, Italy and China and all, without exception, were a credit to both their teachers and countries alike. It was a pleasure to talk to them about Worcester and to show them around the Guildhall.

Worcester Vigornia Rotary Club celebrated their Presidential handover in great style with dinner on board a river boat, cruising up and down the Severn. It was a lovely evening, blessed with good weather and delightful company. I wish Victoria well in her year as President and every success in her fund raising efforts for worthy causes including Sight Concern, a nominated charity we both share.

Junior Youth Speaks at Hollymount School, organised by the Rotary Club of Worcester, gave us another impossible task of choosing winners! The problem is that these are impossible choices, in my mind they are all winners and show what incredible talent Worcester youth has to offer.

Similarly, RGS The Grange had their School Speech Day, again also exhibiting some remarkable talent and prizes for achievement were awarded across all six year groups. A former Head Girl at the school, Miss Ellie Ives, now a graduate of Oxford University, was the guest of honour and gave a brilliant speech – as did the current Head Girl, who was a pleasure to listen to!