Reflections Area Opening (Castle Grounds)

Each year the Mayor of Tamworth presents a gift to the Borough and back in May 2011 Cllr Lee Bates announced that he was going to do something a little different from the norm. The norm has been to buy the Town a gift of a piece of silver ware, crystal or pottery which goes on display in the Mayor's parlour in the Town Hall. this is something that Lee and I have discussed a number of times, so what was it that Lee wanted to do?
Lee announced that he was going to make a contribution to a project with the local Rotary Club to create a seated reflection area in the Castle Grounds. This area was to allow people to sit and rest whilst they could reflect on anything they wanted and the area also housed the commemorative stone celebrating the formation of the Mercian regiment in 2007.
What has been created is a very public area and an asset to the town, I have to say I'm very impressed with what the rotary and Cllr Lee Bates have achieved. We have some great assets in the castle grounds and this adds to the whole offer we have.

Well Done Rotary and Well Done Lee

Private tour guide

Last night we were picked up at 6:30 by a few members of the twinning association in Vaujours who had taken it upon themselves to treat us to a meal in Paris. We visited a cathederal before settling into a nice restaurant a few yards away.

This is my first experience of France (apart from a day trip to when I was at school) so I had a choice to make do I order a safe salad and a cheese burger or do I go for it and try the snails. It had to be the snails, so I'm sitting in a french restaurant over looking Paris listening to the French voices and a piano playing in the corner thinking this feels very French. Then I thought of the film pretty women where she uses the clamps and sends her food flying across the table, "really hope I don't do that". No it was fine I ate the snails easily and really enjoyed them. I sent an mms of them to my children in Tamworth, the three year old was apparently quite disturbed by what I was about to eat.

The meal was a really nice treat from few people hosting us.

Following the meal we all jumped into 2 cars and drive into the centre of Paris. One of the comments I made was that if I had come here without the twinning I would not have had the experience I've had with the twinning. Michele being local knew his way around the capital and knew the history so as we drive round the land marks he explained them and if we wished he would stop a let us take photos, we took in some fantastic sights such as driving past moulin rouge, the Eiffel tower, notre dam etc, and all the time he asked us what we wanted to do next.

The twinning association in Tamworth can certainly offer this type of friendship with our neighbours in France and Germany. But I feel there is alot more that can be done with exchange of ideas practices and learning across the board.

Anyway I'm having a fantastic time and alot of networking, looking forward to spending the day with the Mayor of Vaujours.

First 24 hours in Vajours

I probably left the airport about 24 hours ago now and my feet have barely touched the floor. On arrival at our twin town in France I was taken to a local residents house for a meal which I have to say was fantastic the openness and friendliness of the French involved in twinning is amazing. With having a very limited knowledge of French I was made to feel very welcome as everyone tried to translate for me and the food just kept coming I left their house around 1am and prepared for an 8am departure to Versailles.

It's quite warm for the time of year in France (around 10 C) and whilst overcast we had a pleasant journey to the palace of the sun king Louis XIV, well what can I say the place looks wonderful with the gold railings as you approach the building. To describe it is one of those times when it would be great to use the line "a pucture says a thousand world so here's some pictures) but as I am typing this in a hotel reception and I have yet to finding how to post pictures on blogger from my iPhone I simply can't show you. Needless to say it was a great experience walking around learning about the building and some french history. On thing That stood out for me was the shear size of the place and the immaculate grounds we walked around.
Whilst in the grounds we stopped for lunch in a nice restaurant where once again I had the chance to try some combinations of foods we just don't try in the Uk (as I am not talking stereotypes)this was followed by a long pleasent walk back to the minibus, the grounds are such that you feel a million miles from anywhere not so close to the sneaky populated Paris.

I write this entry as I wait for my hosts to pick me up for and evening in the capital. There is so much opportunity within twinning in Tamworth that we need to harness but there needs to be more involvement and drive, I would recommend people especially younger people to join up and explore France and Germany with the help of some friends within either sides of twinning

Student fire fighters Presentation

Student Fire Fighting vehicle

Today was a celebration and awards ceremony for the first set of student firefighters to be trained and graduate in Tamworth.

Here I met 7 of the student fire fighters who have attened at 12 week course consisting of one day per week. these young people had recived some excellent training and through 2 displays showed us what they had learnt. this wasn't thoery or playing around this was proper training in fire and rescue from cutting the roof off a car to fighting fires with breathing aparatus.

In the past student fire fighters have had to travel out of Tamworth to do this course, but now we have the fantastic facilities at Belgrave the benefits are fantastic.

A couple of the things I noticed today included 1, the weather 2, the team 3, the attention to detail.
The weather - as i sat in the cold watching I thought to myself how it would have been nice to have done this on a warm dry day, but then stopped and thought, the actual fire and rescue personal don't have a choice if its a real emergency. And today (no offence meant) you couldn't tell the difference between the regular staff and the teenagers.
The Team, these young people came from different school around Tamworth and had not met before but still in the 12 hours they worked together and developed a strong team, they way they used the spinal board and cut the roof off the car was a really team effort and was carried off seamlessly
Attention to detail and discipline, my teenage kid and other children really struggle to tidy up, but these in the team did what they did in the rescue and without a thought put all the equipment back away where is should be without a second thought.

This was a great experience and honour to share with the families, I hope the courses continue and would recommend all high schools to be aware and find out about this opportunity for young people in Tamworth.

Event of 30 years ago, Penlee and the Solomon Browne Crew

6 Sleeps to Christmas and on this day 30 years ago a particular event changed the lives of at least 16 families who lost loved ones in a single incident, of the 16 who lost their lives 8 of them were volunteers for the RNLI on board the Solomon Browne, Penlee Lifeboat, out trying to save the lives of others.

Exactly 7 months ago to the day I wrote a blog entry land-locked-tamworth-its-mayor-and-rnli where I retold the story of the disaster and explained why I would be supporting the RNLI as my chosen charity this year.  for a good but brief account of the story I have found a BBC Link of the story at the time  and included a youtube video I have found

There are so many elements to this story of heroism that I find touching and or upsetting. These men were volunteers preparing to celebrate Christmas with their families only 6 days later, the coxswain refusing to let 2 members of the same family go on the rescue due to the severity of the weather, a group of these guys were sitting relaxing the the local British legion when the alarm was raised and off they went never to return.

I'm not sure but I think I understood the heroism of this story straight away even though I was only 5 at the time, I'd had all my family holidays in Cornwall and part of every holiday was seeing a lifeboat somewhere so may be it was just that I knew of these hero's.

Anyone can write about these things and I fall into that anyone category but it takes something special to do what the volunteers of the RNLI do. Please support the RNLI though any of my events or direct through their website and local branches, none of us know when we will need their support. http://www.rnli.org.uk/

Would I go out tonight in an horrific storm to save others? I'd like to think so but I really don't ever want to be asked the question.

Bolehall Manor Club Childrens Christmas Party

Bolehall Manor on Amington road is a spectacular building which many of us drive past regularly, today the venue played host to a children's Christmas party which was open to members families. I arrived whilst the children were eating their party food and shortly before Santa handed out the presents.

Bolehall Manor is always a pleasure to visit and looked great today being so busy and decorated for Christmas, the 45 kids made it look really busy. Then came the moment they had all been waiting for Santa arrived, there was a great moment when Santa announced to the cheering children that he had some helpers, his elves and the Mayor of Tamworth, at this point the kids stopped cheering looked at me then turned back to Santa and started cheering again. it was a great moment.

The keen eyed readers will have noticed a film crew who were at Bolehall Manor filming for a BBC documentary about the economy and have been following a member of the directors of the club so came along today to film the Christmas Party.

The atmoshere was really nice and there was a great mix of all ages of the families attending

Wilnecote & Dosthill Seniors Christmas Lunch

Wilnecote Parish hall played host to the 3rd Wilnecote & Dosthill Seniors Christmas Lunch. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the number of people there, nearly 100 older people from the area had been nominated by people in the community to be awarded tickets to this free event. We were all treated to a fantastic Christmas meal, a Free raffle (prizes donated by the community) and entertainment from Happy Feet Dancing.

Due to another Mayoral ccommitment I had to leave before the dancing started but I was there long enough to welcome the guests and wish them a Happy Christmas and a good new year.not to mention enjoy a great meal that was served tremendously efficiently, 100 people eating 3 courses in an hour

This event, I believe, was organised by Cllr Lee Bates who funded it to the tune of around 1700 pounds from his local community fund.

We were joined by some influential people of Tamworth past and present including Terry and Pat Dix (Pat is chair of Dosthill PACT,  both are former Mayors and Terry was leader and Chairman of Staffordshire County Council), Pat Standon (chair of Wilnecote Residents Group), Brian and Joan Jenkins (former MP for Tamworth and both former Mayors of Tamworth) Brian Beale (county and borough councillor), Tina Clements (Deputy Mayor) and of course Lee Bates (county and borough councillor and former Mayor).

This event also served as a presentation for some Staffordshire Volunteer awards which amongst others Terry Dix was awarded on for the contribution he has made to the Dosthill community. When I get a list of all those who received awards I will add them to this blog

As I said at the event "councils don't build communities, communities build communities" and today the 90 odd people that were there showed that community spirit is alive and growing in Dosthill and Wilnecote.

Another Great Christmas event

Wilnecote Childrens Christmas Party

So it was straight from Stonydelph Arch to Wilnecote Working Men's Club for the Wilnecote Children's Christmas Party,
This event was organised by Tina Clements and had around 15 children attending from the very you through to around 9 years. It was a nice little event and when Cllr Clements couldn't find the present for Pass the Parcel she had to improvise and came up with the great kids game of Pass the Beer Mat, when the music stops the person with the beer mat is out. To the kids the beer mat didn't matter they were having a great time at their Christmas party.

The culmination was a Christmas present and a photo with the Mayor of Tamworth. great event and great fun to attend.

Santa comes to Stonydelph Arch

For the first time Santa and his helpers landed at Stonydelph Arch, Crossfell. any child that attended with their parent were able to sit with Santa and have a FREE gift.

Other attractions were also on hand including face painting, free craft sessions making table centre pieces and Christmas decorations, Finger printing and mug shots by the Police, a visiting Fire Engine, tombola, raffle and finally must not forget the Community cafe providing refreshments.

Throughout the morning around 100 people visited on top of the group of volunteers from the community who help put the event on. It was a great display of community togetherness, local councillors, public sector staff and volunteers all pulling together to make this free Christmas event happen for the benefit of the local area. However there were some disappointed faces when the fire engine suddenly disappeared on a shout, but all was restored on its return.

This event and the Amington one last month was supported by my Local Community Fund

No big message here just reporting on some of the fantastic work that the local Arches are doing , great event well worth looking out for next year if there is another one.

Help for heroes

Staurday morning (5th December) I attended a charity fund rasier for Help the Heroes at Topp Tiles at Wilnecote. This event also included the entrance to the Coop superstore and was orgainised by a local army cadet from Glascote who had invited other organisations to join in suck at the local police, fire service and sea cadets.
The cadets there were also treated to some one on one time with a current serving airman allowing an in sight into his day tro day life etc.

It was a nice small event and hopefuilly raised some cash for charity as well as brought sea and army cadents closer together

Bad Laasphe (Pt1) The Golden Book

31 years ago Tamworth and Bad Lassphe (Germany) signed a declaration that we would Twin and build relations between the two areas. This year as Mayor of Tamworth I travelled to Bad Laasphe to sign their Golden book in the spirit of reaffirming this relationship and also attend the handover of some nice fire fighting equipment.
The first thing that struck me about the visit was the genuine welcome we received, and the pleasure they had that we had made the effort. speaking not a word of German made the speeches interesting but not a problem as we had great a translator who had volunteered to assist, not only that but many of the people we met spoke good English too and made us feel very welcome. They still have a real grasp as to the value of twinning and the learning and sharing opportunities that it provides, the weekend really opened my eyes to this and I feel we in Tamworth should do more to raise the profile of the learning that is available through twinning.

So signing the golden book. Every visiting dignitary that Bad Lassphe has is invited to sign the golden book, this is kept in the Rathaus or town hall and serves as live reminder of the recent history of Bad Lassphe. I quickly scanned the book to see what to do and who else had signed it the first page I opened at random was on from 1985 and contained the signature of the greatly missed Sammy Munn. Having taken a moment to inform the councillors of Bad Laasphe of his sad passing it was on with the ceremony which was attended by local councillors and the local press.

So with the book signed by myself, the Mayoress and Tony Goodwin the chief exec of Tamworth we retired to another room where we had time to met and chat to members of the twinning group in Bad Laasphe and councillors of the area including exchanging stories about the Staffordshire Hoard and previous twinning triumphs.

Pride of Tamworth Awards

Now in its second year the Pride of Tamworth Awards landed at Drayton Manor for the Presentation.

The evening went really well as we were treated to a performance of dance and singing from by the children from Birds Bush School and choir followed later by 2 performances from 2 students of QEMS who played the piano and violin.

And then came the awards,

I do not have a full list of the runners up and winners so i will just talk about generalities.

The Pride of Tamworth Awards celebrate the huge contribution that both individuals and groups make to Tamworth and there were a vast amount of nominees from a wide range of backgrounds. Some had been volunteering for many years some only a short time, some had used their skills to influence, some had provided manual labour. They all had one thing in common and that was they have all made a difference to Tamworth and none of them had done it for an award.

It is the contribution that these people make that makes Tamworth Tick, these people provide the glue that holds our communities together in fact if it weren't for the contribution these groups make we would not have a community just a set of buildings with beds in. And Tamworth would be a much duller place.

Tina McBain's Coffee, Chocolate and Chat Morning

The first of this years Mayor's Charity events took place in Peel's Cafe, Tamworth, and was organised completely by Tina McBain with some help from Ian I'm sure.
The morning was relaxed and enjoyable with a variety of different people coming through the door top support Tina and also the RNLI. The picture we are holding was Lent to us by the local branch of the RNLI who have recently raised the money to buy the D-Class lifeboat featured in the pic. Some of the money i will raise this year will go to keeping that lifeboat running.

During the morning a raffle was ran along with guess the weight of the cake, these raised over £100 on the day and tickets for the raffle are being sold until Friday 24th June so final totals are not in yet.

It was a really good morning in a nice venue looking out at Tamworth Town Hall.
Big Thank you to those who donated including Cabury's Tk Max Asda and many more. also thanks to Nicola Oates for her support. Finally we must all Thank Tina and Ian for putting this fundraiser on and kicking off a year of raising money for the RNLI.

Don't forget you can still donate via   http://www.justgiving.com/Christina-Gibbons

Former Councillors

Last week I chaired the Full Council meeting of Tamworth Borough Council. Part of the agenda is for the Mayor, Leader, Cabinet or Chief Exec to make announcements, this year I decided to use this opportunity to make sure we say Thank you to the councillors who have either retired or did not get re-elected.

I have always felt that it is a tragic shame for outgoing councillors to simply leave without mention. Well they get a letter asking them to return their badge and laptop, doesn't even warn them that the door may hit their backside on the way out. So as simple as the gesture is I had some certificates printed which I signed and framed, these thanked the former councillor on behalf of the people of Tamworth and listed their terms of office.

Mr Martyn Price served on the council from 2007 to 2011
Mr Ben Price served on the council from 2007 to 2011
Mr Steven Nicklin served on the council from 2007 to 2011
Mr John Wells has served a number of terms totalling 24 years on the council retiring in 2011

There names will be recorded in a set of minutes which their children or grandchildren may never see, In fact John Wells has also been Mayor so will have more recognition in local history but still little. I hope the certificates I gave out will give them some pride that they can share with their kids and grand kids in years to come.

Simple gift but a Thank you and the respect they deserve.

Land Locked Tamworth, it's Mayor and the RNLI

This week I Jeremy Oates swore an oath and became Mayor of the Borough of Tamworth. This was for me possibly the most emotional Council Meeting I have attended. Nerves played like never before and to say I feel proud and honoured is simply an understatement. I have lived in Tamworth all my life and coming from a political background the Mayor of Tamworth has always been someone I have looked upto and aspired to. two days later and I am still pinching myself.

As Mayor of Tamworth one of the roles is to choose a charity and raise money for throughout the year, This year I have chosen the RNLI and i thought it might be useful to explain here why I have chosen this particular group.

Within the UK it is difficult to get further away from the sea than we are in Tamworth but as I do there are hundred possible thousands on people from Tamworth who visit the uk coast line every year and for me that means it's only time before the RNLI will be involved in a rescue involving the a resident of Tamworth. Along with this the RNLI is also the charity my gran left money to when she passed away and she was a great supporter of them, I'm pleased to support the same charity as my gran did.

We all talk about the value of volunteering and this should not be diluted, for me the lifeboat men of the uk are a fantastic example of what I have termed "Extreme Volunteering" they go out in awful conditions at their own risk and no income to rescue the lives of other.

I recall a story from my childhood which to me is a story of fantastic heroism and bravery I can only dream of, this is the story of the Penlee lifeboat on the night of the 19th December 1981.

Only 5 nights before christmas a call was recievd by the falmouth coast guard that the union star, a brand new gargo ship, had lost it's engines and could not restart them. That night the weather was horrendous and worsening, a call was put out to the crew of the Penlee lifeboat in the village of Mousehole cornwall, who sped to the rescue in the boat above. These guys displayed a selflessness and command of the seas that has me in tears just to think of. that night events happened quickely and some of those on the union star made it to the life boat, this life boat then stayed on the scene to rescue the rest when tragedy struck and took the lives of all on board the union star and the volunteers on the Penlee lifeboat.

I have missed alot out of this story but remember it from my childhood and remember being in cornwall when th new lifeboat was delivered. I am can not start to comprehend the selflessness of these men and their families. whilst I will not be collecting for any Penlee memorial I feel this story of heroism should be told and this year I will be supporting the RNLI and the volunteers who genuinely put their own lives at risk for other simply because they want to.