Outgoing mayor honoured to represent the town

OUTGOING mayor, cllr Ian Cunningham, has reflected on his year as mayor and thanks the town for their support. 

Cllr Cunningham said, “I have very much enjoyed the honour of being mayor of my adopted town of Westbury.

“Although I went to school not so far away in Shaftesbury, I really hadn’t come across Westbury until I moved here just over 10 years ago. Six years ago, I made a decision to give up full-time work for a while, (particularly not flying around the world every week to teach IT) and devote my time to voluntary work. 

“I became very involved in much that goes on in this town and thought I knew quite a bit about who does what. But in my mayoral year, I have learnt so much more, meeting all sorts of people and being invited to so many events and celebrations – it has been wonderful to have seen so many activities. I’d like to thank all those groups and individuals who have invited me to represent the town at their various occasions.

“The mayor’s role is an odd one; people think you have all kinds of powers but in reality, there are none. The role of chair of the council which goes with being Town Mayor has a couple of legal requirements (you sign a few documents) but even then, you are mostly an ordinary councillor – in particular you don’t control all the town council’s business. All the “mayor” bits are honorary and an opportunity to represent and promote the town.

“So now that I have come to the end of my mayoral term, I would like to thank the other councillors for giving me the opportunity.

“As the retiring chair of the council, I would like to acknowledge the work of our town council staff, led by our hard-working clerk, Deborah Urch, who has done so much to improve the workings of the council as we have expanded to take on more responsibilities, more staff and become increasingly active in a number of areas.

“I am sure I speak for all councillors when I say how impressed we have been with the increasing amounts of work the team take on with calm efficiency. I’d also like to mention our hard working town councillors who are all volunteers and receive no pay or allowances for the many hours they each contribute.

“I would also like to pass on personal thanks to Sarah Barker who has been responsible for organising my activities as mayor throughout the year. If I managed to turn up at your event on the right day and even at the right time, that would be entirely due to her efforts.

“I’d also like to thank my two mayor’s cadets corporals, Katie Bradbeer and James Rutt, who have dutifully turned up at so many civic events and been a credit to their units.

“I must also thank the mayoress, Julie Cunningham and my daughter Annabel for putting up with lots of events, travelling, giving last minute lifts and general inconvenience they shared during my mayoral year.

“It is hard to pick out highlights, although last year’s summer event in the Market Place was fantastic, and Christmas in Westbury with a lights switch-on show to an overflowing Market Place and even a viral Westbury video was so uplifting and such good PR for the town. 

“Also in the year of the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War, the town council capped four years of commemorative activities with a very well-attended Remembrance Day service and a poignant special occasion at our beacon, above the White Horse, which was lit as part of the national Battle’s Over event by the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire (who, with other, dignitaries remained unignited thanks to careful management by our team).

“Towards the end of my term, it was a particular pleasure to finally open a post office in Westbury – although I am still not certain if the real highlight wasn’t meeting “Elvis” who was outside entertaining those who came along to support the opening.

“My final public appearance was at a wonderful tea party with entertainment for the town’s older people, arranged by Westbury Lions (who also invited me to my first event of the year and several others during the year).

“And the very last activity was an informal tea party at the Laverton, just a few hours before my term expired, where I handed out civic awards to three recipients, Radek Evans, Will Phillips and Linda Millard, who were unable to attend the civic reception a few weeks earlier.

“I haven’t kept a proper count of the number of events I have attended, or the miles I cycled to get to most of them, but I can report that it can keep you very busy and I hope my successor, cllr Mike Sutton, who supported me during the year as deputy mayor, has as much fun as I did in his term as town mayor of Westbury.

“I would also like to thank the editor and reporters at the White Horse News who have been so supportive of all the mayoral activities during the last year.

“Thank you to all of you for the honour of being a figurehead for the town and for much kindness shown to me by so many during the last year.”