Post Mayor Posting

It has been a long time since I last blogged. Partly because I have the duties of Bracknell Town Mayor to attend to. So; Here is the report; well most of the report that I gave at the end of my year as Mayor.

This year has gone much quicker that I expected
When I sat down to compose a report, I wondered where to start.
I thought, let’s have a look in the website; ….. what do we tell people that the Town council does? It says…. Our mission is:

To be the guardian of Bracknell Town’s parks, play areas and public spaces,
and to safeguard them from possible future development.
To be responsible to the needs of all sections of our community to build upon
our achievements and provide high quality services at minimum cost.

This is evidenced by our recent commitment to helping the community in creating a Neighbourhood Plan. More will be talked about that later……
Later this evening, the new mayor will be presenting this years grant cheques to various deserving organisations. It gave me much pleasure to meet, as Mayor, with a great number of the recipients of last years grants, and to see the hard work and dedication of their many unsung volunteers.

It has been my pleasure to support the repair of Holy Trinity Church Roof and Youth Rugby this past year.
A member of the Mosaic Church, that is affiliated to Holy Trinity, gave an excellent speech at my Civic Service earlier this year about the values imbued in sports that can overflow into our lives. Through discipline, control and mutual self-respect, a fellowship and sense of fair play are forged, …..this is a set of laws that fit well with everyday life.

That brings me to the facilities provided by the Town Council; recreational facilities that can be accessed by all. My thoughts are first drawn to Calfridus way in Bracknell, where Rugby youth practices, and where many improvements have been put in place by the Town Council.
Recent projects have enabled us to provide improved play and exercise equipment for Town residents. The Sports Legacy Zone at Mill Park applied the latest thinking in social fitness and multi-use sports area design.

There have been other improvements to the Town Councils Recreation and Woodland areas. These facilities have benefited from the attendance of our environment wardens. Two of The Town Council Parks have gained Green flag awards, signifying that they are among the top in the country.
Numerous events have been held by the Town Council over the year, one I much enjoyed was the Teddy Bears Picnic.

During my Mayoral Year I have enjoyed many events, and visits, and as I started to mention above, it has been humbling to meet so many enthusiastic volunteers in the Town Area, these are people that serve us every day. My thanks go out to all those voluntary organisations that help us all.

I much enjoyed the progress of Bracknell in Bloom last year; meeting the contenders; meeting the Judges; and helping to hand out awards to winners. I am especially proud of the Towns children, in Schools and at Scouts, and youth clubs, who contributed, and passed on their enthusiasm to their parents. I hope next year that with everyone’s help that we will yet again be in the top, if not top of the winners nationally.
I would encourage everyone to look at the BTC website to see the range of things that we do. And please do sign up to the Facebook page to keep in touch with news and activities of the Council.

I have not held that many fund raising events this year, for one reason or another,  but am grateful to the Grange Hotel for their handling of the Tea Party, and The Old Manor for providing at a huge discount the hosting of the gathering after the Civic Service.
I would also thank the staff at the Town Council, who have been most supportive, under the guidance of our Town Clerk Russell Reeve.

Back to more blogging soon...