Mayor of Worcester

It was a disappointing start to the week with rain washing out some very good plans, the main casualty being the Carnival. The event was run this year basically for two reasons; one to see if the people of Worcester want one (the crowds that turned out proved without doubt that they did), and the other was to sort out all the logistics – including security arrangements and health and safety.

It was such a shame about the weather – the rain ruined all the paper costumes that the parents and children made, Pitchcroft flooded and the fun fair was forced to up stumps and depart! As Mayor I think that Worcester should have an annual carnival and I hope the future will see a bigger event with motorised floats, which will bring the whole community together.

On a very, very positive note the European Wheelchair Basketball Championship, held at the Arena, was magnificent! Really fast, energetic, entertaining sport played out by incredibly keen and committed teams of great players. Not only was the sport great, the venue was second to none and provided world class facilities for all the competitors, administrators and spectators alike. Hats off to the University for such great forward thinking and planning to deliver this national venue for disabled sporting events; so good for Worcester!

Our teams did us proud; the women’s team did well to gain bronze. In their match against Germany, who won Gold, we lost by one point with a final score of 55 to 56. They deserved more and nearly won that match when the very last ball, worth two points, in the very last second of the match bounced off the ring of the net just as the whistle blew!! Our men’s Team won the Championship Final with points to spare. A truly superb week in Worcester’s sporting calendar.

The Battle of Worcester Drumhead Service took place on 3^rd September, starting in the Commandery and then processing up to the top of Fort Royal, where two volleys of musket fire preceded a short service by Cannon Tonge and then a talk by Stephen Roberts. The Battle of Worcester Society is committed to bringing the fascinating and vital heritage behind the battle of 1651 to life for us all and during this event a book titled The Diaries and Papers of Henry Townshend was launched. It is about his experiences of life during the siege of Worcester in 1646.

 

Another great week, although the Mayoress and I did get rather wet on a few occasions! One of those was the Brentknoll Vets Family Fun Day & Dog Show, which was held at the Countryside Centre by Worcester Woods. The turnout was superb with over 400 entrants and it was such a shame when the skies opened and the rain fell down – well in reality it lashed down, driven by a strong wind which was almost horizontal at times! Despite this the show went on. I struggled to cut the ribbon to open the event but managed it eventually, getting soaked in the process!

The Little Shop of Horrors at the John Moore Theatre, Kings School, had no weather worries as the show was snuggly indoors. A cast of 22 young actors aged from eight years of age to late teens, supported by an experienced production team of three, put on a brilliant presentation. Company Manager Alan Feeney should be rightly proud of this production, the audience loved it. Well done Alan.

Of course the event of the week was the opening of the European Wheelchair Basketball Championships, which are being held right here in Worcester at the Arena on the West Bank, Hylton Road. I saw my first live match when GB played Germany earlier in the summer, and what an experience that was. The game was fast and furious and thoroughly entertaining; it was also great to meet the Team after the game. I was won over and became a fan immediately!

In fact it’s great to welcome the European Wheelchair Basket Ball Championships to Worcester. The foresight of David Green and his University Team have made this possible by building the Arena, a sporting facility that is now the National Venue for Wheelchair Basketball and other sports. So a big thank you for putting Worcester squarely on the sporting map.

Having these Championships here in Worcester is a great boost for our city, 73 action-packed matches split over 33 sessions allowing great opportunities to watch top class sport, right here on our doorstep. I’m sure the entire City would like to give support to the Great Britain teams as they embark on their road to Rio.

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and standard of JD Wetherspoon’s refurbishment of their pub and beer garden in Crown Passage, but I wasn’t expecting the re-opening of the historic Crown Hotel to offer such delightful accommodation.   The Hotel, originally opened around 1669 as a coaching Inn, offers 18 bedrooms spread over three floors (including two pairs of rooms which are interconnecting) and a disabled access room.   The rooms feature an ensuite bathroom, tea  and coffee making facilities, hair dryer, flat-screen television and Wi-Fi, as well as digital air-conditioning and temperature control.

The design is based around music, since composer Sir Edward Elgar played and rehearsed in the building in the late 1800s.  Each bedroom has a hand painted violin as a piece of artwork.  The bedroom carpet has an abstract pattern taken from one of Elgar’s music scores and the corridor carpet similarly follows this idea with a musical emblem as the pattern, as well as musical themed paintings.

My “Day in a Wheelchair” seemed to attract a lot of publicity and, for me, was a bit of an eye opener.  Apart from getting soaked in the rain as I found it’s impossible to hold an umbrella and propel the wheelchair at the same time, I found lots of difficulties that I would have otherwise been unaware of.  Slopes and gradients could be a problem and they certainly affected direction and stability and being so low down meant cash machines (ATMs) were unreadable as the angle of the light striking them blanked out all the instructions.  Items on high shelves in shops couldn’t be reached and one needed help to get to them and strangely, when I was accompanied, people occasionally spoke over me to the person with me rather than directly addressing me.

Why would I do this you might ask?  Well two main reasons – firstly to promote the forthcoming European Wheelchair Basket Ball Games to be held at the Arena and to encourage support for Team GB!!  The other reason was to help raise general awareness of the difficulties faced by wheelchair users, and to understand some of the issues.

Sophie Carrigill, Team Captain of GB Wheelchair Basketball was great company, so don’t miss out! There will be 73 action-packed matches split over 33 sessions – great opportunities to watch top class sport and support the Great Britain teams as they embark on their road to Rio.

 

Weight Watchers should have been with me at the opening of the new branch of Oak Furnitureland at Blackpole Retail Park, as the cake they displayed as part of the opening ceremony was that of a young lady subject to a partially complete autopsy! A clever idea to reduce calorie intake, if a little gruesome!    If you haven’t guessed, it was a fund raiser!

The opening of VJ Day celebration was a moving occasion, with a good turnout of both residents and members of the Royal British Legion. A short service was held on the steps of the Guildhall and afterwards people could view the material on show on the stalls that had been set up on either side of the entrance. Apart from the significance of this being the 70th anniversary, we were privileged to have Fred Seiker with us, signing copies of his book, “Lest We Forget” – a Booker prize winning story about the Railroad of Death in Burma.

Fred, a local chap, was captured when the Japanese invaded and overran the island of Java and he was sent to work on the Thai-Burma railroad, where the most horrendous of the prisoner of camps were, resulting in the highest number of deaths among all the camps. He was not repatriated until 1946. Fred is now 99 years of age, he will celebrate his 100th birthday on the 20th November. Fred once said, “You never live until you have almost died”.

On a lighter note I then had the great pleasure of opening the 13th Worcester Festival which started with the great sounds of the Gugge Band as they rhythmically swaggered up the High Street from Elgar’s statue.

Then the fun started as The Rock Choir followed Gugge, and the sounds of both gave the crowd some really great entertainment! This year the Festival is hosting 387 events at 32 venues, of which 228 are free and a further 118 are less than £5.00!

The Worcester Show over in Gheluvelt Park was the best yet, it has been estimated that some 10,000 visitors came and what a show it was! This event has been getting bigger and better each year and this year saw more than 900 entries in the marquee and over 150 local exhibitors representing exceptionally high standards throughout.

The Flash Mob started things off and then the ribbon was cut, crowds poured into the marquee to see the hundreds of entries and how they had been judged. I saw the best Begonia I have ever seen and the biggest cabbage by far!

Michelle Newell and her team excelled in producing this truly great event, the weather smiled on us and the wonderful atmosphere completed the picture. Everyone I spoke to (and that ran into hundreds) said they’d had a lovely time. My thanks to “Our Team” at the City Council for delivering such a good event.