Jeremy Oates Tamworth Councillor

Tamyouth Awards

2012-02-02T22:00:00.003+00:00

An invitation to attend and awards evening at TamYouth left me wondering what was in store for the evening, all I knew was the venue and that some of the people will be between 16 & 25 years old.
So off I went from a meeting at marmion house over to TamYouth, I was greeted on the way in by Paul Berrisford the manager and offered a coffee and told the buffet was open. I later learnt that the young people from the youth forum had put the buffet together and i have to say did a great job of it.

now seated I awaited the start, a young lad walked on stage as compare and opened the evening by introducing some young people from Glascote youth centre who had attended each week and learnt to play some electric guitars and drums, creating a great sounding band. the rest of the evening kicked of with awards for the young people whole use the youth centres in Tamworth and are able to achieve various qualifications. some of these were volunteering awards some were organisational and team building skills. There was a real sense of worth from going to the youth centres aside from just something to do. some of the youngsters looked very nervous receiving their awards on stage in front of a room full of strangers, especially when they had a microphone thrust in front of them and being asked if they would like to say anything.

As the night rolled out we celebrated an number of awards, some where to members of the spin group who deal with disabilities whilst others went to youth forum members. then we got to Duke of Edinburgh awards where young people received bronze silver and gold awards under the DofE scheme, this was accompanied by a great video made by the gold award group which was filmed on their expedition and contained the pros and cons of motivational singing whilst walking, great entertainment.

The next part of the evening was a little of a surprise for me as the youth service then went on to award various members of staff and volunteers certificates for their achievements or qualifications earnt in the year. I though this was fantastic, this was intergenerational sharing of achievement. Some of the staff are able to join others leading expeditions etc and all received their awards that night.

One thing that really came across throughout the whole evening was the value and opportunity within the youth service in Tamworth as well a the community feel between staff and attendees, it was great to be a witness to this and I would recommend to anyone they should check out the services their local youth centre has to offer.

Burns Night 2012

2012-01-29T12:12:00.045+00:00

Tartan, Pipes and Haggis can only mean on thing, its the time of year to celebrate the life and works on one Scot - Robert Burns.

Each year the Mayor of Tamworth is invited to the Tamworth District Scottish society Burns night held at Drayton Manor and for a few weeks prior it had been suggested that I should wear a Kilt. So with a quick phone call to my father the lending of a kilt was arranged and accompanied my Dinner Jacket and black tie for this event.
On entry were were piped in with the president of the Scottish society and her honoured guests to sit at the top of the table ready to enjoy a fantastic traditional meal. however this could not begin without the traditional Selkirk Grace.

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

And of course during the festivities the piping in of the "Great chieftain o' the pudding-race!" or haggis as we know it.

The food whilst a high point was not the only highlight of the evening, this year we had a Scottish lady who had lived in Tamworth for 6 years give a speech to "Tamworth the town of our adoption" which was a real treat and acknowledgement of how Tamworth had welcomed her and her family. the speech pointed out Tamworth's many attributes and it was refreshing to hear this from someone who has relatively recently arrived here and not hearing this from another politician etc. As mayor of Tamworth I was called upon to respond to this speech (and on this occasion had minutes to prepare) Whilst speaking I did reflect on the evening a great way to celebrate peoples history and heritage, not many cultures or communities do this as often as they should nowadays and it was fantastic to celebrate this with the.

I was not aware at the time the next treat in store, this was the fantastically funny and slightly sexist Toast to the lassies and Toast to the laddies. we where treated to some great humour as a husband and wife team introduced the speeches, loads of laughter and mild offence made for two brilliant speeches.

for those who have not been to a burns night and don't know much about the Scottish poet don't worry and get yourself to a burns night supper as there is the speech to the immortal memory, during this speech I learnt more about the poet than I have in the rest of my life.

I had a great night and really enjoyed it.

Aladdin, Tamworth Pantomime Company 2012

2012-01-23T10:27:00.002+00:00

Well where do I start, Tamworth Pantomime Company produced a fantastic show and had the Assembly Rooms packed.And so the music volume went up and the lights went down ready for the performance to begin.
I'll be the first to admit that I have not been to any of the local pantomime company's previous pantos but have seen some of the cast perform elsewhere in other roles so knew I was in for a treat and with such names as Alex Ferrall, Ian Gibbon, Lee Bates I wondered whether I was going to be the butt of any jokes.

With a relatively small cast and team these enthusiastic locals turned the assembly rooms into a theatre with all the atmosphere of a professional outfit.

The next few hours flew by with some fantastic performance and amazing singing which had everyone joining in with the traditional panto banta as well as plenty of laughter. It's always great to see kids enjoying pantomime (which is why I returned the following day with mine) but its easy to forget how real a play can be for a small child. One of the lines delivered from the panto baddy was that he was going to melt the snow dome which caused a chuckle in the audience but for one young boy this was serious, during the interval the young lad was hiding I the toilets tears steaming down his face because the snow done was going to be melted. A really sweet innocent moment that summed up the great performance we were watching.
It's difficult to mention all the great per danced because they were all fantastic, but I must mention you younger cast members including the evil side kick gaga who put in a great performance.

It was a truly great show and when I returned the following day with my chasten the audience was really into the panto spirit almost drowning out the cast, it was a fantastic experience. There was a great family feel and community fell to the show and it's a credit to all those involved that the audience felt a part of the show, this production kept hold of all the traditional elements of Pantomime including the essential Dame.
Great show well done all.

New Community Gym at Rawlett

2012-01-19T18:22:00.000+00:00

Wednesday morning and off to Rawletts school (wearing a suit) to officially open the latest investment the school has made. They have taken an old music room knocked it into another room for a nice big space and with some math funding equipped the new room as a high tech gym.
From what I understand the school is about to clear the financing borrowed to build the AstroTurf and instead of standing still that have made a further investment, knowing they have a great gym they were not satisfied and applied for match funding which I believe is successful and so mirrors and an interactive white board will be installed for enhance PE lessons.

There are a few things that impress me with the school and one of them ic the "can do" attitude, they had an idea and got on and delivered it, fantastic.

So why did I mention the suit, well my briefing sheet said I could have a go on the equipment if I wanted, unfortunately I was not dressed to train.
I'm always made to feel welcome at Rawletts by both the staff and pupils. This week I had the chance to catch up with Claudia Walker who I met at te school last year. Claudia plays for England ladies under 17 football team and so she is a real local inspiration. Before Rawletts opened the gym she was having to travel to stoke for much of her fitness work I think she said daily. So for her it's a reall opportunity, not only for the staff and pupils but the local community are able to use the facility outside school hours on a pay as you go system.

Not only is this a great opportunity but also a great business development got the school, the community and the students.

Great work well done

Reflections Area Opening (Castle Grounds)

2012-01-11T23:09:00.000+00:00

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

Final Day in Vaujours

2012-01-10T10:13:00.001+00:00

Already the last full day had arrived.
The morning was pleasant and refreshing as we had a walk through the local park which until the 1970's was home to a gun powder plant and had now been reclaimed by nature, so I can walk through parks here in England why travel to France? Well its simple they have red squirrels and parrots. Ok so the parrots are a new alien invasion over the last 6 years or so (so I am told) and have bread and now have a large colony. It was quiet fascinating the history and now the way the park is developed.

Lunch with the Mayor of Vaujours was next on the agenda, we were joined by another Mayor from Belgium who is also twinned with Vaujours. This got me thinking and i have since started a map showing twinning links spreading from Tamworth. During this meal we exchanged stories and information such as a chat about the governance of local authorities and the roles of the Mayor, leaders and chief executives etc along with the history of wearing a chain or a sash. But this meal was not just about informal chat we also had some open and frank discussions about the role of twinning and how it can be moved away from just civic dinners to more meaningful twinning. It was apparent that our continental colleagues still have a firm grasp of where they want twinning to be going.

So with lunch over and a quick tour of Vaujours looking at their latest projects and then an hour off to prepare for the "Best Wishes" event that evening.

The Best Wishes event concluded my official stay in Vaujours (all I had to do is catch a plane in the morning). This event included a speech from the Mayor about the years successes and projects then followed by a buffet of various foods from different food outlets throughout the town.
The projects included a nursery built and opened, overhead cables in some streets buried beneath the road and a new football stadium. This was presented to about 400 local residents, I wondered if we could get away with such an event in the Uk where there is a basic dislike for the majority of politicians and local authorities. In France however this was a celebration of the councils achievements.

Another great day in vaujours and some real learning. I have three jobs to do in relation to true value of twinning and those links are already being made.

Private tour guide

2012-01-09T10:40:00.001+00:00

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

2012-01-08T17:34:00.001+00:00

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

The Lambs travel to Everton

2012-01-07T14:50:00.000+00:00

As I write this there are around 20 minutes left before Tamworth Fc take on Everton in the 3rd round of the FA cup 2012. Tamworth are currently the we one lowest ranked team I. The competition but so what today they carry with them the hopes and dreams of about 5000 traveling supporters and a whole town behind them.

This is a fantastic event and for me it's what sport is about. The best way to get young people involved in sport is through competition and aspiration. Today Tamworth Fc will be playing against a premiership team, the dream of every school boy who plays the game and proving that this is in reach if young players want it and work hard enough.

I don't know what the result will be but I do know that when I travelled down to Wembly for the FA vase final in 1989 I felt a sense of belonging to and pride in the town we live. Tamworth Fc are putting Tamworth on the map raising the profile of the town, of football and of sport for everyone, their doing a fantastic job. I hope supporters continue to follow he club after the FA cup competition concludes regardless of how far we get.

So two final points 5000ish following the lambs today, the first FA cup game this seasion attracted only 1000 to the lamb,

Good luck lads I hope you pull of a nice shock for the north west

Princes Trust Presentation

2011-12-21T15:34:00.000+00:00

The Progressive Club played venue to the Team 266 Prince's Trust Presentation celebration.

The Prince's Trust was set up 35 years ago and has a number of strands including supporting people in need of skills and confidence development through to assistance with business start up. The group presenting here, team 266, consisted of 7 young people from Tamworth who were struggling to gain employment and could develop some of their confidence and skills through Prince's trust.

They all took part in a 12 week course which included many items of problem solving team building and other essential skills learning including first aid and in this case DIY, along with the need to fund raise towards a particular project.
On of their fund raising ideas was to kidnap me as Mayor of Tamworth, a very bizarre experience but a lot of fun.

during the 12 weeks they had plenty of experiences including residential trips, and a DIY project to decorate the Tamworth Canoe Club rooms, this project turned into a larger one when the walls they were painting fell apart and the you people were left wit the problem of finding a new wall covering to put up before the painting began.

The 8 people that completed the course and gained their certificates last night have been on a fantastic journey and have all now either got volunteer placements of job offers as well as having improved their CV's. One of the participants commented that this course has taught them that you can turn your life around and start again putting your old life behind you.

It was really nice to see these people succeed when in the past they had struggled and the only future they could see was signing on. The princes trust do a great job and of the young people they help 85% of them go on to employment, education or training.

Student fire fighters Presentation

2011-12-19T14:45:00.000+00:00

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

2011-12-19T10:55:00.001+00:00

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.

Wilnecote Rest Home Christmas Carols

2011-12-12T22:00:00.014+00:00

A bitterly cold windy and wet evening was not a problem as we went inside Wilnecote Rest Home for their carol service.

Everyone was seated as we kicked off we 9 readings and a dozen carols, led by both local churches. As can be imagined some of the residents are becoming quiet elderly and so we were all allowed to remain seated for the duration.

I was really nice and relaxed sitting together and singing carols, I really noticed how many of them knew to carols so well and didn't have to look at the words at all.

Local man Graham Allcote helped organise the event and spent weeks on his mobility scooter selling raffle tickets to raise funds for the centre.

Really nice cosy event

Bolehall Manor Club Childrens Christmas Party

2011-12-11T21:51:00.000+00:00

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

2011-12-11T21:05:00.001+00:00

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

Amington Band Christmas Concert

2011-12-10T23:48:00.002+00:00

I've just got in from tonights Mayoral duty and I'm that excited about it I have had to turn the computer on and write this blog entry.

So I have seen Amington Band before and would recommend them to anyone especially if you have not seen them before. Tonight was a fantastic treat, we had the band playing a variety of pieces and playing backing to a great Tenor Richard Lloyd Owen as well as the Birmingham Citadel Timbrel Brigade.

The Night began with the band playing Little Drummer Boy and White Christmas, then came the Birmingham Tinbrel ladies came out and performed with Amington Band providing the music, for anyone who doesn't know what a Timbrel group does (me about 4 hours ago) search them on google, but it involves some really good tambourine dancing with tassel's. When a Child is Born was followed by the Tenor singer who entertained and amazed us with his vocal talents.

Another highlight were the 2 performances by The Lichfield Players who were really good and added some great humour to the evening.

I had a great night and really enjoy listening to Amington Band but for me the highlight of the night was the last set, the audience was asked to stand and join in singing some Christmas carols. The whole of the assembly rooms were on their feet, the band was playing louder than they had all night, all the other performers joined then on stage and we raced through 9 carols with an atmosphere and volume you would not believe if you were not there, we all really raised the roof. Everyone joined in and sang their hearts out, it was truly a fantastic moment in such a great venue.

Wilnecote Childrens Christmas Party

2011-12-10T16:00:00.010+00:00

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

2011-12-10T15:30:00.001+00:00

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.

BiBs breast feeding peer group

2011-12-08T22:57:00.001+00:00

You know the feeling when you get invited to something and your not quite sure what to expect, well today was on of those feelings as I made my way to the Breast Feeding Peer Group graduation at Glascote Sure Start centre.

I was expecting to get there and find half a dozen new moms who had chosen to breast feed their new child, what I was a room fiull of volunteers who not only had chosen to breast feed their babies but also help other moms who maybe struggling to do so. I learnt that the group now had 14 volunteers moms providing advice and support including a 24/7 phone line and home visits. In that last 20 months they have helped 285 moms at anti natal stage. We presented a number of certifcates to the newly qualified peers.

This group provides a fantastic service which is not provided by any public service, the advice has been put together with personal expeirence and training all this is done by the 14 volunteers free of charge. I was told of many visits made to new moms homes for periods of 3 hours to help the mom breast feed. The great thing about this 'service' is that just when a mom is at her most anxious and worried about her new baby these ladies can provide calming advice, any mom who can not easily feed will immediately become worried and anxious, today I learnt of how it took some moms around a week to be able to achieve what they wanted, by which stage many would have given up.

So a really good afternoon with some great volunteers from our community.
I never did find out what the knitted breasts were about ????

I would recommend all moms to be or new moms should get in touch with Bibs at Surestart and consider their help with breast feeding or any other anxiety.

Long time no blog

2011-12-05T12:35:00.000+00:00

Ok I have not blogged for an ages so I will be trying to fill this gap with memories of what I have been up to and back dating them.

Apologies

Staffordshire Performing Arts Christmas concert

2011-12-03T18:00:00.012+00:00

A great afternoon in the warm protected from the cold by the Coton Centre we settled down to a great performance from local people young and adult who performed a wide array of pieces.

We were treated to a Christmas concert (which this year was in December, we learnt last years was snowed off and so was held in February)which involved a rotation of 6 different groups including sax, strings concert band etc and had children as young as 8 performing.

It was a great enjoyable event.

I didn't realise (and maybe I should) that whilst Staffordshire performing arts carries the Staffordshire logo it is a separate entity and now has to bid for funding through central government. I hope that the good work of this organisation continues and I wish the friends of SPA all the luck in the world in fund raising and organising more concerts in the future.

the level of talent in Tamworth's youth is fantastic I only wish more people knew about it and not the odd few that blight out landscape

Help for heroes

2011-12-03T12:47:00.000+00:00

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 Pt 3 (Small Walks and Christmas Market)

2011-11-26T22:00:00.008+00:00

Our second day in Bad Laasphe started with some free time which we used to have a short wander around the centre of the old town which consists of some really old timber framed buildings dating back to the 1200's.

When the time came to be met we were invited on a “Small Walk”, this sounded great however our hosts idea of a short walk was not quiet the small walk I was expecting. We were taken to a small park up a small hill which housed the local war memorial, and what a fantastic view of the town there was from there, you really got a sense of the wooded hills surrounding Bad Laasphe.

Right walk over and off to open the Christmas market, this was a small market in the old town which had a real Christmas feel to it and as far as I could see only sold take away food, beer and mulled wine which was fantastic. Once again I found myself going through the motions of guessing what to do as I had no idea what was being said. I stood on stage as their mayor thanked people for coming and thanked those who had sponsored the event. This was done with parcels wrapped under a tree one with each sponsors name on which were read out in tern.

Later that evening before dinner we had the opportunity to return to the market which was packed, there were loads of people eating drinking an milling around it was a fantastic atmosphere really welcoming.

Bad Laasphe (Pt2) Fire Fighting

2011-11-25T22:00:00.002+00:00

It was a privileged to be able to attend the handover of a new turntable ladder at the Bad Laaspe fire station. The weather was a tiny bit damp, more drizzle than rain, and there was a cold wind as we arrived at the Fire Station, as we rounded the corner into the yard we where greeted by around a dozen appliances and vehicles plus loads of people.

The handover ceremony started almost immediately after we arrived with the Bürgermeister (mayor) of bad Laasphe making a speech and presenting the chief fire officer with a giant Iveco Key to symbolise the had over of the new appliance. After a few speeches (in German obviously and well translated by the person next to me) I was Introduced and called forward to make a presentation to the chief fire officer, before I left for Germany being on the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Authority I arranged for an authority plaque to take. I presented my gift much to the pleasure and honour of the Chief fire officer this was followed by Tony Goodwin (Chief Executive of TBC) presenting the station with a gift from the council, we too received gifts and relaxed to chat.

Our relaxation was short lived and replaced with exhilaration as Tony and I were given the opportunity to go up in the new ladder platform, we both stepped in and the platform began to rise. to our surprise the movement was very smooth and stable without wobble or jolt, before we knew it we were 6 storeys up (100ft 30m ish) swinging around in the air looking down on roof tops and about 150 people below. the feeling was amazing, I would never had dreamt I would have the opportunity to do this but there I was 6 storeys up and not able to speak the same language as the person operating the controls.

Feet back on the ground and legs becoming shaky it was time to join the other guests in the fire station and enjoy some refreshment, conveniently the chief fire officer is also the local brewer and the local Bosch Pils was flowing nicely. Once again the residents of Bad Laasphe were really friendly and we spent allot of the evening talking to both members of their twinning and local fire fighter who made us feel really welcome.

The Fire service in Germany is voluntary (in a similar was to our retained crews a payment is paid however this goes through their employer) and the local community raises funds for equipment, but the dedication of these fire fighters is second to none.

We had a fantastic evening till around 10 o'clock when a days travelling from Tamworth began to take hold and we made our way to our hotel room for the week end.

Bad Laasphe (Pt1) The Golden Book

2011-11-25T17:30:00.003+00:00

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.