Yes It Was A Jolly Good Mayoral Year!

Well today is the last Day of being Mayor and Mayoress of Wolverhampton!

The position as Mayor and Mayoress has been fun for both Mary and I. We have really enjoyed our role this year. I do hope people will recognise the effort and enthusiasm that we have both put in. We have had a fabulous 12 months and we have spent so much time together that the whole thing has been a great adventure. At this point I want to pay tribute to Mary. She has been just tremendous in this role as Mayoress. She has carried the City on her sense of style and her fun antics! I am not sure exactly how many engagements we have undertaken together but I know that they have run into many hundreds!

Yet we have both continued to work on our day jobs Mary at Chubb Safe Company
( Gunnebo) and I with Travel West Midlands the regions biggest bus company.

I stated from the outset that I wanted to do things differently this year, well I think that we have done just that!

We have been very Mayoral one minute and very non-Mayoral the next! An example of non Mayoral was the game of tick with Blakenhall Scouts in the Mayor's Parlour! and playing 'Oxford and Cambridge' with Wednesfield Guides on another occasion, again in the Parlour....You ought to have heard the squeals of delight from the Guides and the gurgling noises coming from the Mayor! as I gasped for breath.

I have chuckled as I watched the Mayoress tackle a rock face in Wales with Wolverhampton school children egging her on...now that was certainly a first!

We have also done the serious, speaking in Queen Square last year after the London bombings, taking the ‘Book of Condolence’ to London. Remembrance Day parades and Remembrance ceremonies have been very much on our itinerary. We have gained great pleasure in meeting with veterans.

Wolverhampton was the first City in the U.K to openly celebrate Canada's birthday.

The visit by the High Commissioner of Canada Mr Mel Cappe and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Mr Don McKinnon were spectacular success and both addressed the City from the Council Chamber.

I also enjoyed meeting the High Commissioner of Jamaica, Consuls from across the West Midlands, and the visit by the Deputy Premier of Nevis, and three MP's from St Helena, India and Kenya. Our international reputation has been enhanced with delegations from China and Japan arriving to look at our great city.

I have also met The Secretary of State for Culture Leisure and Sport Tessa Jowell who said very nice things about my Mayoralty!

Mary and I have done as much as we can to raise the profile of Wolverhampton internationally.

I have great memories of our visit to Budapest and the continued links we made with Kobanya. The Hungarian Christmas Festival and the visit to Athens with the Mander Centre meeting the Mayor of Rentis and hosting him in a return visit here.
I can say with pride that Wolverhampton's international links have never been stronger.

I started out with the theme " Industry Commerce and Culture-Wolverhampton the First City of the Black Country" and I have done much to promote business in the city. The ‘business champions’ meetings with some of the biggest names in Wolverhampton attending have been highly successful.

I think that we got under Bristol's skin a little when I described Wolverhampton as being the home of aero-space!
Why shouldn't we brag about the precision engineering that we have here that helps drive the aero space industry. I have since been in our factories and I am amazed at the way that they are producing high tech commodities for the air line and defence industries. We are the home of aero space and I don't care if we do rock the Bristol air-bus a bit!

We were in cyberspace with my ‘Mayor Making’ beamed across the World by the internet..

I am pleased that I drove that innovation and I know people from Australia Canada Sweden and Portugal all watched...bet Bristol would like to have that ‘cyberspace’ strap line!

Yes it has been a ground breaking year, we also took part in local visits to schools, to peoples homes, and we have raised in excess of £28,000 for charity, with money still coming in! I also introduced ‘The Mayor's Certificate of Excellence’, and we have awarded these important tokens of bravery, and good citizenship to Wulfrunians that have gone the extra mile for others.

This award has been received very well by recipients and their families. I am proud of this innovation.and proud of the way that it has been received here in Wolverhampton.

We were also in the Queens attendance at Buckingham Palace and at Stafford for their 800 year Charter celebrations.

We enjoyed a fine lunch in the House of Commons with our three MPs. I was particularly delighted to be invited to watch the Baron Bilston of Bilston ( Denis Turner) receive his ‘Letters Patent’ in the House of Lords.

We received HRH Princess Royal at Dunstall Park when she arrived at the venue by helicopter, and we were introduced to HRH Prince Andrew at Whittington Barracks.

As you can see it has been an action packed year of television, radio and newspaper interviews, all with one thing in mind, and that was promoting the City of Wolverhampton.

I suppose the only down side was striking two trees with the first two golf shots I made on the Mayors Golf Day..that made a few laughs as the ball finished almost behind the Club House!