Mayor of Worcester Blog

As I write this diary I am looking out at a blue sky and bright sunshine and have the promise of better times to come, now that we have our roadmap to freedom.

When I spoke to Mayor Joe Petty in Worcester Massachusetts this week, he was feeling optimistic about recovery too and we spent time talking about how later this year, they could help us to celebrate our four hundred year Charter, which first incorporated Worcester as a city and created the role of Mayor in 1621.  Likewise, we will do all we can to help Worcester MA to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the founding of their town next year.  As I said to Joe, we beat you by 100 years – I am pleased to say it raised a smile!  I was able to update the Twinning Association on the latest developments when I attended their AGM later that evening as President of the Association.  We hope that twinning can add something to the celebrations on both sides of “the pond”.

The City Council held its budget setting meeting this week and with four motions to debate on top of the budget, I feel we did well to get through it in less than three hours.  We commemorated the death of Peggy Neil, a past Mayoress of Worcester in the 1980s, with a minute’s silence.  Until very recently Peggy’s husband Bernard was the only councillor to be Mayor of Worcester twice in modern times.

On Friday I recorded a speech to mark LGBTQ+ History Month this February.  The rainbow flag has been flying in Cathedral Square all month in celebration.  Worcester City Council is pleased to support local community groups such as Out2gether, Worcestershire Pride and the University of Worcester students in their efforts to raise awareness of our LGBTQ+ community and make Worcester an inclusive and welcoming place for all.

I am sure you all know that Chinese New Year fell on 12 February and this year we are entering the year of the Ox.  Red is traditionally an important colour at Chinese New Year.  People wear and decorate homes with this colour, and firecrackers are set off in celebration of the year to come.  In Worcester we would normally have a crowd of people outside the Guildhall to welcome in the Chinese New Year with a dragon and brightly dressed performers and dancers, but of course as with so many events this year COVID has affected the way we marked the occasion.  So, Monday found me on a Zoom call with Nina Das Gupta from BBC Hereford and Worcester, being interviewed instead about Chinese New Year.

The first year that we officially celebrated this event in Worcester was 1999, so it has now been an important fixture in the city’s calendar for 22 years.  I was pleased to say in my interview how significant this festival has become and that it brings joy into the lives of so many people here, even though it will be online this year.  It can be seen on YouTube at http://www.worcestershirechineseassociation.com/.  We deeply value the contribution the Chinese people make to our multicultural society in Worcester and we enjoy celebrating with them.

I hope our school children are enjoying half term.  I would normally be taking my grandchildren out for day trips and having fun, but times are anything but normal.  This time I have had to make do with a walk with Dave.  Not quite the same fun!!

I am pleased to see that the number of new cases of COVID continues to fall nationally as well as here in Worcester, and the vaccination programme is progressing well. While we can feel some relief at the promise of better times to come, please remember that our hospitals are still working overtime to cope with this disease, and therefore it is still absolutely necessary to observe the basic rules of lockdown.

As I write this, it is bitterly cold outside and the temperature is beginning to drop even further as darkness falls.  This week it dropped to nearly -23 degrees in Braemar – and it doesn’t look like there will be much improvement on that tonight.   What I also have in front of me is a vase of spring daffodils, and in spite of the cold outside these simple flowers give me hope of better times to come.  We are approaching the one-year mark since most of us realised that there was something amiss in the world, in the shape of a new virus.  Little did we know then how serious it would be and how much it would change our lives.

Another week in lockdown for me means another week when sadly I cannot come out to meet you and perform those special jobs that you expect from your Mayor.  I have however not been idle.  I attended a Zoom meeting of the Council’s Policy and Resources committee, at which we discussed and approved a budget for next year to be recommended to full Council in two weeks’ time.  I also attended a trustees’ meeting of Worcester Community Trust, again by Zoom.

However, one of the nicest activities of my week was the Zoom meeting to launch the sensory lending library at Fort Royal Primary school.  The Friends of Fort Royal, together with generous donors, raised enough money to buy over 200 pieces of equipment which will help the pupils to extend their period of concentration.  While the children cannot access the equipment at school because of lockdown, they can now borrow it to aid their learning process. What a brilliant idea – many thanks to all those who raised this money to make this possible.

How have you used this lockdown time?  Have you learned a new skill, read that pile of books, decorated that room, tidied the garden or decluttered your cupboards?  If like me you have not done any of these, don’t be disheartened. The coronavirus rate continues to fall in Worcester and with the vaccination programme progressing, we will get through this.

I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Captain Sir Tom Moore this week.  He was a symbol of hope and fortitude to us all and helped us to look forward to a better time when we can come together and hug our loved ones and enjoy each other’s company again.  Captain Tom helped us to believe that “tomorrow will be a good day”.  My deepest sympathy goes out to his family and to the families of all those who have lost loved ones during this pandemic.  I am pleased to say that the vaccination programme seems to be on target for all those in the highest risk groups to have had one vaccination by mid-February.

I enjoyed my bi-monthly discussion with the City Council’s CEO, David Blake this week and we were able to catch up on plans for the city centre.  We hope that the grant already awarded of £17.9m from the Future High Street Fund and the bid going in for £27.9m for the Town Investment Plan will bring funding into Worcester that will make the centre of town an attractive and interesting place to visit and live in.  This is an exciting time to be in Worcester.

This week Worcester Twinning Association, of which I am President, set up a zoom meeting attended by our friends from our twin towns of Worcester Massachusetts, le Vesinet, Kleve and Vernon.  We had a very interesting talk from Howard Robinson who told us about the voyage of the Mayflower from Plymouth to New England in 1620 carrying a local man from Droitwich named Edward Winslow.  This was obviously of particular interest to our American friends and our Zoom was attended by over 40 participants all together.  Zoom has certainly helped twinning members to stay in touch and is a way forward for the future of our organisation.

My holiday planning which I told you about last week continues and my wish list of destinations is getting longer every day!  I am going to need plenty of energy to get through it and whether I will manage, I don’t know, but it is going to be great fun trying.