Mayor of Worcester

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.

Worcester City Council’s Sport, Art and Play Development Team have once again excelled this year, organising coached sports at 14 different venues across the city for two to 18-year-olds. Having visited one such event at Gheluvelt Park, I can honestly say they are a great success. At this particular venue Jo Pavey MBE came along to meet the children and add a certain magic to the event. Jo won the 10,000m gold medal at the 2014 European Championships in Zürich and has represented Britain in both the World Championships and the Olympic Games. It was great to have her present.

Hannah Cox heads the council’s sporting offer and I really must congratulate her on this and all the other sport and play events around the city. She and her team provide a high level of service and the kids thoroughly enjoy these events.

The Mayoress and I were invited to the Swan Theatre for a delightful production of Annie by WODYS, the award-winning youth section of Worcester Operatic and Dramatic Society. They were great, 61 performers took part aged from eight to 18 years of age and between them produced a wonderful evening of first class entertainment. WODYS were formed in 1982 and have performed at the Swan since 1992.

Auditions were still being held in January with rehearsals every Saturday morning starting February 15 and all performances were sold out. Look out for next year’s show which will be Les Misérables School Edition. Book early as tickets will sell out quickly.

A group of Chinese students attending an English course at Worcester University came to the Guildhall for the awarding of their certificates of achievement. Not only were they over here to study English, but also cricket, baking cakes and the wonderful heritage our Cathedral City has to offer. They were a lovely and appreciative group who genuinely seemed to love Worcester, the people and its history.

The Worcester Beer, Cider and Perry Festival offered close on 200 types of beer, over 100 ciders and around 30 different choices of perry. I’m not so keen on the ciders and perry, but some of the Beers were very good indeed!

I don’t think I’ve seen a beer festival quite that big before and the marquees were just enormous. Food was available and being blessed with good weather helped tremendously, with everyone seeming to be having a good time.

A busy and interesting week, it started with a tour of Acorns Hospice which, whilst very sad, was certainly inspiring.  The facilities, colour schemes and architecture are superb, providing support, engagement and comfort for the residents, and the staff are incredibly committed and caring.  It is ten years since Acorns opened and the gardens are becoming quite mature; there are areas of fun, colour and solace and walking around the grounds one feels as if one is away from everything, no hint that the location is in that of a city!

The Mayoress and I had the opportunity to visit ASPIE, a social self-help and motivation group for adults with Asperger’s Syndrome, providing a drop-in point and place of comfort.  ASPIE was founded in 2011 by the late Sarah Micklewright with the aim of providing a place where Aspies can meet one another and the good work is now continue by her mother, Julia.

The theme of “good work” continued when Harry Turner, Chairman of Worcestershire NHS Trust, allowed us an opportunity of being shown around the new Oncology Unit and the new Birthing Unit, both of which were amazing.  It didn’t feel like a normal hospital environment as it was so colourful, light and beautifully designed.  Encouragingly we saw the plans to extend the A&E Department and to further extend the car parking facilities. This is one hospital that is reaching out and succeeding, to improve services and facilities, giving patient stays a more beneficial outcome and making them a more pleasant experience.
The finale of our visit to the Worcester Royal was to meet and thank the volunteers who so admirably support the work of our hospital staff and management.  They are a great group of people who deserve our praise and thanks. So much more is achieved because of them!

It was a pleasure to attend the 800th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Charter being granted to Droitwich by King John in 1215, with a re-enactment of the King’s visit to the town.  The charter gave the burghers the right to produce and market salt from the remarkable natural brine springs which emanate from subterranean beds of pure rock salt 200 feet below ground level.

Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and the re-enactment was great fun. I’m not too sure about the authenticity of King John arriving on a canal barge, but it added an additional fun element to the day.
The Worcester Foodie Festival was great. We had 60 stalls of which 25 were city centre businesses and many others were suppliers to city centre businesses.  15 businesses are signed up to our Food and Drink trail with 20 running activities, offers and competitions. As part of the Foodie Fortnight which runs until 9 August we have 10 businesses running ‘Breakfast Club’ offers and 12 doing the same for Lunch. 12 are also doing either a special £5 or £10 menu. The aim of the Foodie Fortnight is to get people to venture into places they might not have tried before and do so without needing to doing on the Foodie Festival weekend when it will be busy anyway.

Footfall in the High Street was up by some 45% – now that’s what Icall a success story!

Anecdotal feedback from the traders and the public has been fantastic with a wonderful atmosphere and Jean-Christophe Novelli ‘stirring’ up a frenzy to melt the hearts of some Mademoiselles who met him during and after his Masterclass sessions.

The last evening of the 2015 Three Choirs Festival was marked with a reception in the Bishop’s Palace Garden in Hereford, a delightful setting by the riverside bathed in sunshine and set amongst some glorious trees.

The Three Choirs Festival is a national treasure, champions of the British choral tradition; it represents the greatest and largest works in classical music night after night during a festival which has been a spiritual presence at the heart of the nation’s cultural life for 300 years.  Look here for more information:- http://www.3choirs.org/

Once again it was great to see just how much volunteers and voluntary organisations contribute to our life in the City. Worcester Lions Club Grant Awards evening highlighted a number of groups who had successfully bid for grants to help their work to continue; it was an impressive evening demonstrating a wide range of activities. These charitable organisations can be said to be the mortar that holds together the bricks of our society here in Worcester.

Last Friday some 70 Italian students visited the Guildhall and they were a very lively lot! The last group were from Sorrento and were a pleasure to talk to – we discussed both Worcester and their home town, which I know quite well. It’s always easier when you have something in common and talking about my memories of their home really broke down the barriers.

This year was Hereford’s turn to host The Three Choirs’ Festival and the Mayoress and I had a very enjoyable visit there; we were both made to feel very welcome – as were the City Council’s Mace Bearers and of course, Frank, our Sword Bearer.

BBC Hereford and Worcester radio held a household waste and recycling event in Crown Gate Shopping Centre earlier this week, where they asked shoppers questions about their recycling habits and challenged them to select the correct bin into which the waste material should go. It was interesting to watch and confirmed the need for more information to help our residents recycle more.

A number of issues came to light – for example a number of passersby said they place their recycling in the green bin already bagged up, when actually it should be placed loose in the bin. Cans and containers should be rinsed out to avoid smells and to improve the quality of the recyclate material – not to mention the working conditions at the Norton Recycling Facility where clean material is so much more pleasant to handle.

Waste should of course be separated where materials are mixed – for example cellophane should be removed from card or paper and placed in the general waste (black) bin and tops removed from milk bottles and similar containers. Cardboard should always go in the green bin, together with any kind of paper. Where families need more recyclate capacity an additional green bin may be requested; this does not apply to the black bins as this would be contrary to the goal of reducing the volume of household waste to landfill. So if you need more green bin capacity, ring The Hub on 01905 722233 and request an additional bin.