Mayor of Worcester Blog

The Great Swan Feed

Between Christmas and the New Year I thoroughly enjoyed being at Worcester’s annual Great Swan Feed.

It was an absolute pleasure, to be out on a fairly sunny day, with lots of residents and visitors to feed many, many swans.

Close up, I find you can really appreciate how majestic the swans are.

Chair and co-ordinator Marilyn McCarthy heads up the city’s Swan Food Project and works year-round with volunteers, to feed and support our swans on our River Severn.

Also to educate people on all things about swans and how best to care for them.

Marilyn was particularly patient with all my questions.

Thank you to Brown’s Restaurant for kindly serving a group of volunteers, my consort and myself, with some free dainty and delicious sweet treats and plenty of tea and coffee, as a thank you, for being volunteers and supporting the swans.

The refreshments were very much needed and appreciated, even on a partially sunny day, the air is cold in December.

I had attended the same event last year as Deputy Mayor, but the weather was atrocious and the River Severn had already flooded.

Understandably less people were out last year, but we did manage to feed a lot of swans from the water’s edge outside of Brown’s Restaurant.

It is 2025 and many of us will be making New Years’ Resolutions.

If you have a little or a lot of spare time, or something in between, I fully recommend volunteering for the Swan Food Project.

Volunteers are always needed and there are lots of jobs that need doing, including feeding the swans.

You can make contact via the website www.theswanfoodproject.co.uk/about-us/

Or if you prefer to contact in person, please feel free to contact me via the Civic Office and we can pass on your telephone number.

Carols, art and sporting Santa

Tuesday was the annual Worcester News carol service. Thank you to the Deputy Mayor and Mayoress for attending on my behalf. I was at the Policy and Resources Committee at the same time and fortunate in that it finished in time for me to catch some of the guests in the Mayor’s Parlour afterwards.

This annual event, for me, is a reminder of the importance of local journalism. It is easy to take for granted every day local news, whether a traditional paper version or online copy or news alerts. Without our local journalists and editors I believe our local world would be a very empty space.

We don’t live globally, or nationally, or online (not physically at least). We live locally, in our communities. Let’s celebrate our local communities and support our local journalists and editors.

On Thursday afternoon I viewed the Worcester Society of Artists Exhibition (WSA) at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum. There was a fantastic mix of styles and mediums. We clearly have some exceptionally talented artists in Worcester. After much deliberation I chose my favourite, Dark Flowers, by Marion Yeo (see below).

Thank you to the Chair of WSA, Chris Phillips, for taking me around the exhibition. It’s very worth a visit over the Christmas break  and perfect for a break from all the traditional festivities (please check the festive opening times). Chairs are available to sit and ponder, and quite a few of the paintings are for sale.

On Thursday I was able to join Father Christmas, Mrs Christmas and Elf with volunteers from the Worcester Lions Club charity outside Perdiswell Leisure Centre. Although it’s a super-busy time, we were able to join in with the spin class and Father Christmas and Elf achieved some pretty impressive bounces on the trampoline!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas is on the way and on Saturday afternoon, consort Andy Lee and myself, celebrated all things Christmas with the Ukrainian community at Hope Church.

It is brilliant to see this once run down and empty building fully refurbished and in use.

The order of the event was to persuade St Nicholas to come out and visit the children in his stocking-filled grotto.

Snow and some very creative snowflakes were made and snowmen were built, with noses made of carrot of course. This was done with the help of some very eager children.

There was some entertaining dancing with a diva of a dinosaur and some beautiful Christas songs sung.

St Nicholas made his appearance and the more than enough stockings were given to some very excited children.

Seeing so many happy faces gave such a lift to our entire day.

On Wednesday evening the Elgar Chorale of Worcester performed the Mayoral Christmas Charity Concert.

Piers Maxim, a very talented Director of Music, alongside this stunning choir entertained with festive carols and readings.

I am proud to announce the turnout was the largest ever and I certainly recommend booking very early next year, to ensure you have a seat.

Mince pies, wine and juice was on offer for the adults and I found some oranges for two lovely grandchildren who attended with consort Stuart Wild, wife Liz and daughter-in-law Katie.

Consort Andy Lee sat with myself at the front and consort Mike Mullins sat in the middle with his wife Pam so all three consorts were in attendance, thank you consorts!

On Thursday morning I was able to meet new City Council staff as part of their induction.

I found it fascinating to meet staff from across many departments, including audit, housing, outdoor conservation, the crematorium, the museum and bin collection.

Mince pies were happily shared.

My theme for the year is ‘youth matters’ and my charity is Perdiswell Young People’s Leisure Club, which is the largest provider of youth services across the city.

This week has been all about young people and has completely reinforced why ‘youth matters’.

I started the week at RGS The Grange for their Christmas celebration.

Children in reception, year one and year two combined for a significant cast of 82.

Joseph, Mary, angels, wise men, shepherds, a fantastic array of animals, narrators and the persona of some staff members, all came together for the story of the nativity including songs, dancing and much more.

The staff leading the production were excellent and had a real rapport with the children.

I have been to many schools, state and private and regardless of their status, I can see how important education is to the teaching staff and making sure that their students do well, both academically and pastorally. Teaching staff thank you for all that you do.

This week I also watched the film production of “Dancing Moon”, created by the amazing volunteers at Dancefest.

The group are located at five of the buildings Worcester Community Trust manage, they hold regular weekly classes for children aged four to 16.

Many genres of dancing are clearly taught and with excellent choreography “Dancing Moon” was born.

The children loved seeing themselves in the film and it was a treat to give out certificates rewarding them for their hard work.

Towards the end of the week, I went to an event hosted by the Hereford and Worcester Army Cadet Force Charitable Trust.

Army cadets are not funded by the army, which one could be forgiven for thinking and the funding they do receive is being significantly cut.

More support is needed for this valuable institution, our future generation.