A year in chains

11:53am Wednesday 14th May 2008

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An honour and a privilege

"IT'S been an exciting and inspiring year.

The Mayoress and I set out to meet and encourage people concerned about the environment. We met primary and secondary school pupils creating gardens with wildlife areas, learning about plants, wildlife and global warming.

A growing number of parents and children are walking and cycling to school rather than drive.

Schools are encouraging children to monitor and reduce their energy usage, and promoting Fair Trade products. These are welcome signs of understanding and hope.

Wirral's people are working hard to establish community gardens and allotments, clearing derelict and untidy sites, and protecting our countryside. Wirral has a special character which is valued.

We met young and enthusiastic children at a range of community projects. These are too many to list. Young people are volunteering as litter wardens, planting trees, serving lunches to the elderly, and learning drumming at youth projects.

Acts of kindness and courtesy take place all the time and deserve recognition. All this gives us hope for the future. We have met carers and volunteers without whose selflessness and dedication society would be poorer and breaking down.

£25,000 pounds has been raised for the special charities I chose, Family Tree in Wirral and the clinic started by Rev Dr Pat Nickson in the Congo. Another £4000 has been raised for smaller local charities and individual projects.

During the year I have spoken with many people who support family members with poor mental health. For me it has been an opportunity to talk about the difficulties and tragedies in my own family.

As so much stigma surrounds mental health issues I hope that my willingness to talk has encouraged others to talk more freely. I chose the theme Wirral in One World for my year.

I am delighted that young people from Wirral are giving time to support projects across the world, raising funds to support their own travel and giving practical help.

There is tremendous awareness in our schools that many people in our world face a daily struggle and that we are all in it together.

It has been an honour and privilege to serve in this office."

Cllr Phil Gilchrist, Mayor of Wirral, 2007/08

We'll do our best to serve you well

"IT would certainly be enormously difficult to be only a part-time mayor in a council of Wirral's size and complexity, so I am retiring just over a year early to be able to put all my efforts into a role that is a great honour.

The Mayor has two quite distinct functions: One is to represent the borough in all manner of formal situations, and the other is to chair council meetings.

The first is an honour and a pleasure; the latter can be a nightmare. When feelings run high in the council chamber it can be quite a task trying to restrain some colleagues, from all parties, from bursting their blood vessels!

I've been particularly fortunate to be deputy mayor to Phil Gilchrist. He and his wife, Chris, have been a splendid mayor and mayoress and they've become good friends to me and my wife, also a Chris.

Our different political hues have not made any difference at all.

My deputy will be Andy Hodson and, as it happens, we have always been on particularly good terms so I'm sure that will be a warm partnership, too.

Few people on the outside would realise how much the mayoral role is influenced by our acting head of civic services and her team, including the mayor's attendants, who organise the mayoralty with military precision. So the Mayor is a civic figurehead supported by a team and a structure that is really where the work is done. I just hope that I will be able to do justice to the support and professionalism they provide. They will also have a key role in supporting my chosen charities, which this year will be St John's Hospice and Claire House. It was difficult to decide on charities when there are so many in need but I am quite happy that these must be among the most deserving.

Each year the Mayor has a theme. For much of my working life I have either been a lecturer or involved in other ways higher education, but it is at the start of schooling that the greatest impact is made. So my theme will be to support reading.

This already has a great tradition in Wirral and I will do all I can to help it along. I'm sure it will be a fascinating year for me, and for the Mayoress.

"We will do our best to serve Wirral well."

Cllr Adrian Jones,

Mayor of Wirral, 2008/09