The Heart of Worcester College held their awards ceremony at the Cathedral last Friday.  This was an impressive event to celebrate the achievements of their students who had graduated with many varied qualifications.  I was able to see first-hand that the commitment of those receiving their certificates was a credit to the teaching staff of the College.

And from the Cathedral I walked over to Cripplegate Park to attend the unveiling of the metal Worcester Pear which forms the part of a heritage trail created by Planet Art.  Walking from there to the Bull Ring and various other locations in St John’s, anyone can watch out for the plaques denoting Roman finds and the butchery trade – as well as other historical connections to Worcester.

On Saturday afternoon I went to what was really a street party in York Place.  The residents there had for a number of years been attempting to have their pavements replaced.  The difficulty was that each house had a cellar making the work very difficult.  However, with a very determined residents association and with the help of a local councillor, they were able to celebrate the work having been done and the street looking much better.  Not often a Mayor opens a new pavement!

The next day brought with it the Tour of Britain Cycle event.  The weather held and by 11o’clock I had started the race and they were all off, en route to Pershore where they really started to race.  Great to see crowds of people out for the event enjoying themselves and seeing some famous faces.  Great for Worcester too with all these visitors to the City.

Then on Tuesday evening I went to Sixways arena where I handed out awards for young people who had taken part in the National Citizens Service.  I commented in a past column about how such a group had helped out at the Worcester Headway (charity’s) building.  This evening was to celebrate what all the groups in Worcestershire had achieved over the past few months.  Although it was their time that they were giving to the community they were really appreciative of the organisers who had given them the opportunity of taking part in various challenges that gave them some life and work skills.