Mayor of Worcester Blog

Recently I was invited to a Repair Café organized by Transition Worcester and whilst there I was asked if I would also like to take part in a food rescue. I had a vague idea what this was – maybe something to do with rummaging through supermarket bins for food that has gone past its sell by date?

The reality was quite a bit different. Worcester Food Rescue are super organized and do around 16 collections each week from places like Tesco, Asda, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Booker. So far this year they have rescued 12 tonnes of food equating to nearly 30,000 meals for people in need.

I took part in a food recue at Waitrose at 9pm when the shop was closed to customers. By invitation of the management we backed our car into the rear entrance normally used by the delivery lorries and awaited to see what posh, but very welcome food, would be making it’s way to feed, amongst others, people at Acorns, Ukrainian families and St Paul’s Hostel. Suffice to say no bin surfing was needed as we transferred the lovely food directly from trolleys to the back of our car.

Transition Worcester also run the Teaching and Display Garden, a community garden located at the Old North Stables on Pitchcroft encouraging people to grow their own food. They also run an energy group that supports local residents to reduce their home energy costs. A subject dear to my heart and as we come to the colder days of autumn will no doubt be the subject of a future Mayoral blog.

Worcester is an amazing place but the volunteers and people who give their time so freely for others are the real treasures. Thank you, Transition Worcester, for all that you do. Find out more about Transition Worcester.

 

Last week I took a holiday. The Mayoress and I had some quiet time with a couple of days out. We visited the ‘I Grew Up in the 80s’ exhibition at the Museum & Art Gallery.

In 1980 I was fourteen years old. It may not now be seen as fashionable but it’s my decade – it’s the decade where I finished school, went to University, married my school girlfriend Katey at the tender age of 21 and got my first job. So yes – the 80s were my formative years.

The 80s exhibition is not perhaps one to go to alone. The fun is all about the reminiscing. “Remember that album cover? Was that the album where the track kept jumping?” The memories kept flooding back, from the chocolate bars that you can’t now buy, to the small screen box telly looping round the sights and sounds of classic TV shows of the time like Danger Mouse and Knight Rider.

There were also the musical greats, from the theatrical Adam Ant’s – ‘Stand And Deliver’, to the apex of synthpop New Order – ‘Blue Monday’ to bangers like ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five – we had it all.

The films were amazing too. Who can forget the influences of the great movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ghostbusters, Aliens, Back To The Future or The Terminator?

The 1980s was a time of innocence and freedom when kids were not tethered to parents with mobile phones and we played outside and fell out of trees.

Thank you Worcester City Council Museums & Art Gallery – for bringing back my childhood memories. Exhibition finishes September 9.

 

One of the great privileges of being the Mayor is to nominate a charity. My chosen charity is Age UK Worcester and Malvern Hills.

Future mayors take note – you are very likely to be lobbied by a number of charities to get your seal of approval. I didn’t find it easy and gave quite a bit of thought to my choice. I wanted to do something for the environment and social justice.

Last year I chaired a cross-party city council group looking at ways we could, as a council, help to support residents in the cost-of-living crisis. With massively increased energy costs I know that many people last winter were living in fuel poverty having to choose between heating and eating. Fuel poverty is defined as any household that is paying more than 10% of their income on energy costs. Money for the gas or electricity meter is vital right now but British homes are often very poorly insulated – what are we doing to reduce heating bills in the first place? Social landlords have been gradually upgrading homes with better boilers, double glazing and wall insulation. And organisations such as Act on Energy have helped many low-income owner occupiers upgrade their homes too. But there is still a gap. There are very many, often older, owner-occupiers living in draughty homes with a letter box falling off or in need of very low-cost sealing strips around their front door or windows. It’s a disgrace that heat and therefore money is disappearing through the cracks.

Step forward Age UK. Age UK provide a trusted service where they visit a resident’s home to provide a free energy assessment and give them advice on how they can reduce their costs but most importantly they will often install things like low energy bulbs and draught excluding strips right there and then. There are so many other reasons to support Age UK from the work they do to tackle loneliness, digital exclusion and money and debit advice. Please take a look at their city centre charity shops. Can you help me spread the word about the great work they do? If you are in a position to do so, would you consider making a donation via the Mayor’s charity page?

https://www.worcestermayor.org.uk/mayors-charity

 

 

On Monday I joined staff and pupils of Perry Wood Primary School in unveiling a brand-new bug hotel in the walkway between The Hive and Crowngate Shopping Centre. A bug hotel is a human-made outdoor structure that attracts insects and smaller animals, to provide them with shelter and a safe place to live.

We live in a busy, changing and often increasingly urban and nature depleted world. We often hear about biodiversity loss, but we are also losing bio abundance. Quite simply if we don’t have enough insects for birds to eat, we’ll continue to see a decline in nature and we’ll all be the losers.

Yes, bug hotels are good for insects, but bug hotels are good for us too. They allow us to get closer to nature and learn about how balanced ecosystems and biodiversity work. They teach us not to be afraid of insects and give us a better understanding of their role in our ecosystem and what they bring to our gardens. Creatures such as ladybirds help to control aphids in our gardens and farmland. Other types of beneficial bugs are the pollinators. Solitary bees pollinate plants from ornamental flowers to food crops.

Very small children often have a fascination with tiny bugs, beetles and worms. But as we get older that childhood fascination sometimes gets extinguished and replaced with feelings of revulsion and a desire to stamp on and destroy the insects around us. Following the lead of Perry Wood Primary School, I now hope to better appreciate and remember the rich tapestry of life including worms, woodlice, centipedes, flies, silverfish, wasps, beetles, mice, shrews, earwigs, bees, lacewings and hoverflies and many, many more, quietly living often unseen just a few steps away.