High School Pupil Council

A quick dash into the Council Offices this afternoon to meet the High School Council. I didn't take the camera so this will have to be a dry old post!!

Good to meet a bunch of altruistic youngsters keen to help themselves and others to better their lives for no obvious and direct benefit apart from the glow. (and glow they were as the council offices were the warmest I've ever known them today - not necessarily because of the heat of the debate but from the unusually humid and growy weather!)

Service is a good thing and without it society wouldn't exist and our communities would be anarchic! Effective lobbying and negotiation is an art and I hope that we as a Town Council as part of the wider Longridge Partnership can work with you to help make your environment better.

Primary School Sports Week

Monday dawned a bit soon after a mad family week end and I was again on parade at Barnacre Road School.

This time it was to help kick off a week of Sport and Physical Activity as part of a national initiative to crank up participation in sport. Blessed with great weather the whole school assembled on the playground and along with Deepdale Duck took part in a warm up aerobics session - teachers and assistants and the lot!

Had a bit of bling competition though - paralympian cycling silvermedallist Rik Waddon came to school for the morning to show off his bling and answer questions .....I left him with inquisitive year 4s asking about his training regime.....here's me in my bling making sure he didnt get chance to trump me (in this pic at least!)

Well done to Mr Smith and all at school for getting stuck in this week. You make me feel distinctly inactive at the moment!

The Mayors Hair and a Food and Drink Festival

Stuart Hall graced Longridge with his diminutive physical but massive otherwise presence on Saturday. (he would have put it considerably more lyrically than that - a man as at ease with words as he is with people).

One of his business interests includes Lancashire Magazine which was a main sponsor of the First Longridge and District Food and Drink Festival hosted by Promac Leisure - AKA The Corporation Arms at Longridge.

The Town Council had also made a contribution and as a result I got to wear the bling again alongside our MP Nigel Evans as the official opening took place on Saturday morning.

By 11 oclock Mr Hall had readjusted the mayors' hair for numerous photos and a Radio Lancashire slot and I decided it was time for cider!! Shortly afterwards the sun came out and the cooking demos got going. Reports back from the organisers suggest that 1300 people attended over the 3 nights and 2 days and there is every chance that there will be another next year! I hope so!!!

visit http://www.longridgenews.co.uk/longridge-news/Longridge-food-festival-hailed-a.5420120.jp for the local papers take and better pic of the job too!!

Civic Sunday

With Ribble Valley alongside and Clitheroe tucked in behind it was the annual Civic Sunday parade around Longridge last Sunday. Just as thrilling for me was having the gang at the back of the parade. Family and friends from as far away as Kent (thanks Sal!) brought up the rear as we walked round the town - with me getting quite choked on occasions. Fortunately the rain held off (as it seems to have done on numerous occasions locally this summer) and we made it into Church dry! In the pic is a lady looking like a Cossack - grandma joined in for the parade in a minibus and then church - her 101 years seemingly irrelvant as the great feeling of the day took over!

The service had been designed to be as young people friendly as we dared hope without wrecking the formality. The interactive reading with the youngsters on the chancel steps was great and Tom Eckton and Sophie Watson did me, Barnacre Road Primary School and themselves proud in the second reading. The music was great and in a salute to last year's mayor the Band got the chance to play Highland Cathedral again - brilliant.

there will be more on this as some more pics arrive - I hope! we didnt take any as usual but felt that we were being papped a lot that day !!!

Mrs Billington is 100

Monday after Civic Sunday and the bling was out again. This time to help Mrs Billington in Pleasington Court celebrate her 100th birthday. The ageing process has been kind and a pretty sprightly lady made a grand entrance in the lounge at the St Vincents scheme where family and residents joined her for a toast tea and cake.

Happy Birthday Margaret!

Mayor Man

Tomorrow is Civic Sunday and a special friend can't make it up from Cornwall to be part of the proceedings. My mate Rufus sent me a card instead and it's brilliant - thanks old bean!

School midsummer fair

Dead chuffed to be asked to be at Barnacre Road school to present the prizes for the girls netball and the boys football competion yesterday.

I'm a governor there so it was even more special. Well done to all the organisers, parents and teachers and the young people too.

The weather held off until the prize presentation and did a good job of clearing the place.

Old Folks trip

Wednesday and its' pouring down but that isn't going to stop 80 or so over 68s (that is the qualifying age) assembling at the Civic for the annual Tradesmens sponsored mystery day out.


Mister Mayor was on hand to wish them a safe trip. I did a thorough search of the coaches and despite my best endeavours couldn't find the illicit alcohol stash. I was also disappointed that the back seats were not fully occupied and can only hope that the singing was going to be led from the middle of the coach.



Well done to the Tradesmans Association for running the event. You might not think 2 coaches is many when you recall there being 4 or 5 not that long ago but don't forget that the older generation is more independent and much fitter now than it was even 10 years ago. Keep up the good work - 80 folk have had a great day out...and now they are back I can reveal that they went to Chester!!

bit of a contrast

The day after Field Day and I find myself in Blackburn Cathedral for a bling gathering with the New High Sheriff of Lancashire, Susie Reynolds from Leighton Hall, the Chairman of Lancs Co Co the ever effervescent Alan Whitaker and a load of the borough chain gang from across the county. There were at least four of us mere town mayors, Longridge, Clitheroe, Garstang and Barlick too.

We were given a brief Hindley history of the Cathedral before assembling for a parade (probably called something else in a church - procession I expect!) in and then choral evensong in the presence of the bish himself and loads of other important church men.

Afterwards tea, cake and warm words in the crypt and then I whizzed home to make burgers for the BBQ for K when she finally got home from work at about 8.30!

Field Day 2009

What a great day we had for the Field Day! It wasn’t so hot that you couldn’t do anything but just right for a great day out!

Katherine and I had been round the decorated shops the night before and by the time we had made it to the Civic Hall to announce the results we had made our decision about third place! Mary Frances was a worthy winner (again!) and she is pictured here at the top of this post with the trophy.

Especially for You with Carol came second. We liked the sentiment – a woman’s work is never done! Actually Katherine really liked that and who would I be to disagree?

And we were happy to award third prize to Christ Church for their display which was a carry on of the Allo Allo theme they did with ADA on the float. And a Special Mayoral Mention to Mark Darbyshire for a magnificent garden – wonderful effort.

Well done the Field Day committee for having a judging panel for the floats. It took the pressure off because there were some brilliant efforts and I’m sure the Longridge News will do the parade proud pictorially! It was strange to be seated in a line outside the Con Club but once the cider had arrived we relaxed into the job and Mayoring became lots of fun!

The outgoing and incoming Show Queens were great - both spoke really well and confidently and their entourages did well too….Pippa – if you are a veggie and you don’t like cheese you are going to be hungry this year girl!!!

We were treated to two brilliant displays while we were being wined and dined ….the gymnastics club and Janet Sutcliffe School of Dance just seem to get better and better and it is wonderful that so many young people are engaged by these and other similar organisations. Shame my pride in Longridge was dented by the shabby behaviour in the centre of town later on in the evening. We really shouldn’t have to have that much police presence on a fun day out!! I like a drink (– really???) but why things should degenerate into aggressive anti social behaviour is beyond me…sharpen up guys!

The final presentation we made was to the Longridge Young Farmers. Worthy winners of a three rounder tug of war against the big lads of the White Bull this was a classic example of technique over brawn. Last years Mayor, Hilda had presented a challenge trophy and it was an honour to be the first to present her trophy. Hope you’re having a great trip in Australia.

We were going to be sensible after the parade and go home and have a quiet night! Hmmm – well let’s just say it was late again shall we? Lots of fun – thanks folks!

Ribble Valley Crossroads

Laura Grasby(manager), Gordon Rimmer (dep Mayor of Ribble Valleys consort), Tom McLean (chairman RV Crossroads) Lois Rimmer (Deputy Mayor of Ribble Valley), dishevelled me, and Stephanie Driver ( Crossroads development worker) at Longridge Market today 11th June.

Its official - Ribble Valley Crossroads is my second good cause for the year.

When I went to market this morning to collect the rents I wasn't expecting to be part of an official visit and wasn't properly turned out - no bling, jeans and in need of a shave didn't really afford the event the respect it deserved.

Ribble Valley Crossroads cares for carers. And it does it on our patch too. I didn't know anything about them until very recently and that's one of the reasons for supporting them this year. I wouldn't claim to know about everything that goes on in Longridge but I'd like to think I have a half decent grip and it made me realise that a bit of profile raising for them this year wouldn't go amiss.

I'm not going to go on in depth about what the charity does because you can find that out for yourself by visiting http://www.crossroads.org.uk/ . What it does do is nicely tie in with my other good cause OJ's (see previous blog).

So that's the good causes sorted - now we just need to raise a load of dosh and awareness! Awareness should be easy - it's a good cause and we know our way around the media. The money side is going to be a bit harder but we will have a go. Look out for news of a really exciting gig in the Civic on 10th October. The man that wrote Delilah for Tom Jones and loads of other really famous songs is coming to Longridge for the Mayor's Charities. Check out http://www.barrymasonsongwriter.com/ and look out for details of how to get tickets shortly.

Volunteer Week Celebration

The Big boss of Youth Services for Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, Carmel Fenning with Katherine and me with some of the brilliant young people who received awards at the Longridge Youth Club this afternoon.

If those in the picture would like to identify themselves in a comment please do!!

Mary the Mayor

So at last my gorgeous consort, the current Mrs Swarbrick (to borrow an expression from Terry Wogan) and I make it to a function together in our mayoral bling.

Mary Robinson is the new Mayor of Clitheroe Town and we attended the Civic Sunday Service and paraded round town. What a fantastic lot of regalia and paraphernalia that the County's second oldest borough gets to use on a formal occasion...

check out these halbardiers - thats the blokes with the spear things - sharp at the bottom and axe like at the top.!!

And a cheering thought about what we have in Longridge, when, as we were leaving a Clitheroe Town councillor congratulated us on what we have in Longridge at the Civic hall - "we've nothing like that here in Clitheroe!"........take a closer look Councillor - I think you're spoilt for choice!!

Pride

Right folks lets keep an eye on the place we live and have some civic pride!

The judges could and do come at any time unannounced and will be here on a couple of occasions during the summer. I'm sticking my neck out a bit by pointing out wonderful examples but one that has in the recent past shone out is the floral display outside the Townley Arms. You can't miss it being on Berry Lane and also on the way down to the Council offices - so councillors see it at least twice a month even if they don't wander about town at any other time!!

But the competition isn't only about floral displays. It is about making the best of what you have...and that includes general littering etc...

This one is short and sweet. . it's going to be a cold wet week end...let's hope that this is the rubbish bit of June before Field Day next week- end.

school

Being a governor of a primary school it isn't a formal appointment as Mayor but it kind of goes with the territory I guess. I have been involved with Barnacre Road School in Longridge for a little while and recently swapped from one sub committee to another.

Yesterday was my first meeting of the Staffing and Curriculum committee and I had an interesting afternoon. The tired old mantra about "nobody likes change" gets trotted out whenever there are difficult decisions and reorganisations to be made but if you thought about the expression for longer than the time it takes to say it you'd surely have to disagree! Nobody likes change when it doesnt suit them - but don't tell me that "nobody likes change"! Why go on holiday, move house, get married, have children? They are all changes that you have control over....

The point is that there have to be changes in organisations to make them work in the round. Schools are people places and the raw materials are , like the weather, fickle and - well - human! (the weather isnt human obviously but it is always changing!!) So next year some of the teaching staff are going to be in different places and it will be strange to start with.....but a month into the new term and that will be normal...

And surely this little vignette is relevant to us all.....life is for most of us about managing change - our own development (aging!?) and the environment around us and we have a general natural human urge to "make things better".

And that's a good thing .......so many people in their own way are making things better...and well done to us all!!

Over and out - time to earn a living!