With the festive season now behind us it was a return to mayoral duties this week. On Tuesday the Mayoress and I attended the opening of the Community Café at the Lyppard Hub. I am very familiar with the Hub, the Community Centre that serves Warndon Villages, as I am one of its trustees and I also represent the area on the City Council. We also hold our monthly Parish Council meetings at the Hub and I am pleased to say that the Hub’s manager, Lauren Cartwright, and her staff have done a great job delivering this Community Café project.

On Wednesday I attended the Executive Committee meeting of the Worcester Twinning Association, chaired by my mayoral predecessor Councillor Jo Hodges. The meeting was held remotely on Zoom, but hopefully the forthcoming annual general meeting can be held in person. Twinning is about meeting people from other countries. Worcester’s twin towns and cities are based in France, Germany, Lithuania, and the USA, and it was encouraging to hear suggestions for future visits after the past two difficult years.

Going abroad has not been easy, and last week the Mayoress and I took our first overseas break since the pandemic began to Madeira. Vaccinations, cheaper Covid testing, and simpler procedures are making foreign travel once again possible.

My final engagement of the week was at Perdiswell for the Charter 400 tree planting event. Volunteers from the Multi-Faith Group, the Polish Community and others helped to plant 400 trees of various species, each one to represent a year that Worcester’s Charter has been in operation. The Mayoress and I joined in the tree planting, alongside two officers from the local policing team, who happened to be on the beat.

It was a fantastic effort, that will also contribute to The Queen’s Green Canopy, one of the initiatives to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee and in which Worcester is one of the Champion Cities.