A week of contrasts with that “morning after” feel coinciding with the end of the Worcester Festival week and the August holiday period.

Jill and I attended the funeral of John Griffith, a colleague and fellow ward Councillor for many years. Our sympathies to his family and in particular Ida, who gave him such tremendous support.

We were also saddened to hear of the death of another colleague, George Randall, who is a former Labour leader and Freeman of this City.

Back to a normal packed schedule, with meetings of the Worcester Community Trust and of the Scrutiny Committee.  On Thursday Jill and I waved goodbye to The Annual Rotary Boat Trip on the River Severn; great to recognise so many friendly faces. What an excellent day out for so many elderly and disabled people!

In the afternoon we joined The Christian Aid and Church Action on Poverty Tax event in St John’s.  This is an issue that won’t go away and I was pleased to sign the petition and again meet so many old friends.

We then joined The Princes Trust Presentation evening for team 164, who demonstrated the success of their twelve week programme.   It was good to meet the participants, award certificates and hear of their plans for the future.

On Friday we were joined in the Guildhall by the Burrows family who enjoyed coffee and cakes and looked around the Guildhall.  In the afternoon we attended The (Warn)Don Festival at Shap Drive, in brilliant weather. The event had been completely organised by young people who were all from Tudor Grange and were on a course supported by Worcester Community Trust staff. I was impressed with their abilities and again presented Certificates in recognition of their efforts.

We joined a procession to The Cathedral to attend the University’s presentation of Honorary Awards for alumni who had completed courses between 1947 and 1968. It was great to see so many sprightly 70 and 80 year olds who had attended the City of Worcester Training College, founded in 1946 as one of the 55 emergency Teacher Training Colleges set up by The Ministry of Education after the Second World War.

The University has grown to meet the needs of 10,000 students, employing over 1,000 staff.  It is a major contributor to the City’s economy.

It is the annual Open House event next weekend, where buildings and areas not generally open to the public fling their doors open across the UK.  We would like to welcome as many people as possible to join us at the Guildhall, which will be open to the public on Sunday.