18/05/2024
As promised..........
OBJECTIVES:
At the beginning of my Mayoral year, in addition to championing Swindon, I set out to achieve several goals, as follows:
¡ To spread love and happiness
¡ To raise the profile of charities, organisations and community groups that support those less fortunate, particularly childrenâs mental health and Young Carers.
¡ To provide children (and other interested parties) with a greater understanding of the role of Mayor, the history of our town and of our Town Twinning.
¡ To improve and strengthen links between the business community and schools, to support opportunities for our young people and our local labour market.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
I am delighted to say that I have achieved this and much more.
Over the past year, I have supported a wide variety of Swindon organisations and individuals through cultural events, shows, education at all levels, employment, charity events, local businesses enterprises to name a few.
I have welcomed three members of the Royal Family, one of whom attended in response to a personal request from me. This visit and associated Palace-led media coverage provided a huge springboard to a relatively new charity â BEST, who I chose to support this year. This enabled them greater access to funding which supports their ability to help Swindonâs young people.
As promised, I have championed Young Carers and asked all Swindon schools to adopt the Young Carers Charter, providing a more level playing field. Kevin and I presented a plaque to Swindon which is situated at Christ Church, to give thanks and recognition to all Young Carers, volunteers and public servants. Swindon Carers Centre, the other charity I have supported, do a great deal to support all unpaid carers.
Thank you to the charities for all they do and I wish them both all the very best for the future.
My year has consisted of many highlights. One of which was forfeiting the Civic Dinner in respect of Young Carers and those struggling with the cost of living crisis. This enabled me to replace this with the Young Carers Fairground to give them a short break, allowing them to feel like Children again. I obtained sponsorship from Nationwide to cover almost all of the cost of this event, saving Swindon Borough Council and the taxpayer thousands of pounds which I hope will be invested into supporting Swindonâs most vulnerable. Attendees said that they had never experienced anything like it before. I think you will agree this was the right decision.
Some of my highlights include:
- Creating and continuing to lead Swindonâs Taskforce with a team of industry, public service and educational experts to drive improvements for our town and for our young people.
- Obtaining sponsorship from GWR and proving a copy of Hannah Dosanjhâs book, âA Railway Town Called Swindonâ to every primary, secondary, SEND school, EOTAS and the main SBC libraries (for the benefit of young people who are Educated at Home), enabling EVERY child to learn more our town and its railway history.
- Increased the schools link between Swindon and Salzgitter and requested the rejuvenation of the Swindon & Salzgitter football tournament that Kevin and I drove in partnership with the STFC Community Foundation during his Mayoral year.
- Bringing together organisations that support the wellbeing of Swindonâs young people.
- Asked Childrenâs services for information on the Mayorâs role, Town Twinning and Swindonâs heritage to be shared with schools, also requesting that more information on this is put on the SBC website, hopefully this will happen in the future.
This year has been more restricted than most in terms of time and money. I have worked hard to go beyond staying in budget and have saved SBC and the taxpayer around ÂŁ12,000 and as Iâve mentioned, I hope this money will be used to support our most vulnerable people and not wasted.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me and to the organisations and individuals across our town who support others đ.
