During this week’s Guildhall tour for 6th Worcester Brownies one of many questions was: “what do you like most about being Mayor?” The answer is a week like this! Talking about the Guildhall with interested and excitable youngsters, opening a pub, accepting a letter from the Inter-Faith Forum about climate change, welcoming Ukrainians to a business workshop, and several Remembrance events. Such variety.

It is an honour and privilege, as Mayor, to lay a wreath in memory of the servicemen and women, and their families and communities, who died in the Great War – as we did at 11am on the 11th of the 11th and at the grave of Woodbine Willie – and those victims of the 1939-45 and subsequent wars. The public crowds demonstrated their support and feeling on Sunday morning in what is a particularly poignant time, with war yet again on mainland Europe.

That sombre thought was with me at the start of workshops being run to assist Ukrainians seeking to start or develop their businesses, having been forced out of their own country and now settling in Worcester.  This was one of the practical developments of our welcoming event during the summer.

The visit from Brownies from my own ward was inspiring as much for me as hopefully for them! There were questions about being Mayor, how heavy is the chain, about politics, about climate, and one of the most insightful, what can young girls do for their community? I think my answer was stand up, don’t be afraid to say what you want, lead by example whether that is taking litter home, or planting trees for the environment, get involved – hopefully a relevant message for any young person in these challenging times.

By the way, the pub was the White Hart in Fernhill Heath.