This week we help bring back the bells at Ghyll, lay the ACE foundation stone, remain as vice chair of Barlick Town Council and hand over in Pendle

Monday 12 May
This is the start of our last week as Mayor & Mayoress of Pendle and it doesn't seem like 12 months ago since we started does it? The question that we have been asked many, many times is “are you enjoying your year?” And now that we have now been to over 375 engagements I can answer that it has been most interesting and we have been able to meet lots of fascinating people of all ages.

Tuesday 13 May
It’s been a very warm start to the week and on walking through my fields I found some large mushrooms which I identified later on the internet as St George’s.

Mayflower make a fine showing

Nick, who farms the fields at the back of me put some of his sheep and lambs on to my land. The sheep help keep the grass down and organically fertilise it so that the land is in excellent condition and we get lots of wild spring flowers. It’s a good time to be in this special part of the world as the grass is lush, the trees are showing their new leaves and the hawthorn and elder trees are just ready to show their blossom.
We distributed cards and gifts to the Mayor’s support staff, Jacqui, Neil and Colin who has helped out a lot this year. Also Christine and Carol in the general office who takes the telephone calls and sorts the post. They have all done a great job of ensuring that we get the engagements on time.
In the evening I went into the town hall for the induction meeting of new Pendle councillors, this year there are 13. I can remember over 20 years ago coming into the Town hall for my first time as councillor for a meeting with Colin Simmons, who was the then Town Clerk of Pendle. I know that I had a very steep learning curve and new councillors today will still have to learn quickly.

Wednesday 14 May
Barbara and I went down to ancient St Mary le Ghyll Church, which is on the outskirts of Barnoldswick for me to hand over £1500 for their bell appeal.

The historic St Mary le Ghyll Church

The tower was added in 1524 and has housed 3 bells since 1723. We were met their by Rev John Lancaster, Chris Whale and other bell ringers. The bells have been silent for a while because the bell frame now needs urgent repair. The bell ringers also have plans to increase the present ring of 3 bells to 6 or 8 and have a bell ringing training centre there.

Barbara and I stand on top of the 16th cent. bell tower at St Mary le Ghyll Church

For the press pictures we went up to the bell tower and these appeared in all the local papers. The appeal needs publicity to get the significant amounts of funding that are needed and my cheque will help towards this.

Cheque handover for the Ghyll bells appeal

We then continued up to the top of the tower where we could see a wide area of West Craven and over to Pendle Hill. Afterwards, in the church yard we were surprised to see the horse and carriage that brought us here to Mayoral Sunday around a year ago. They were out on a run out for the magnificent horses - but what a coincidence!

The magnificent horse and carriage arrive to remind us of Mayoral Sunday

In the afternoon we went to the ACE Centre which is zooming up in Nelson. We were there to lay the foundation stone of the exciting new arts, community and enterprise centre. This is another part of the jigsaw of the new Nelson now starting to take shape.

Laying the foundation stone for the new ACE centre in Nelson

Here's what I said;

Can I welcome everyone to Pendle for this special day in its history.

The new ACE centre is the next part of the regeneration of Nelson town centre which includes Number One Market Street, The bus/rail interchange, Wavelengths Inside Spa and the soon to be started remodelling of the high street bringing traffic back into the heart of the town.

The impressive £5m Arts Community & Enterprise Centre will replace the old Silverman Hall and of course the old Civic Hall. This new development replaces what had been a depressing eyesore in the Town Centre for many years.

It will bring lots more people into Nelson in the evening and is set to improve the night time economy.

It will include
Flexible performance space for Theatre, cinema or conferences
Recording studios
Dance and Drama studio
A top class bistro
Function rooms
Office and Studio space to bring lots more new jobs into Nelson.

PEARL the partnership company set up including Pendle Council and Barnfield Construction has done a marvellous job at bringing the project forward so quickly. The high quality of design will do much to help the regeneration of Nelson. It will help to make Nelson once again a vibrant and thriving place to work, shop and play and we can now start to see a great future for the town.

This is the last engagement that I have to do as The Mayor of Pendle, so
It is my extra specially great privilege to lay the foundation stone for the exciting new ACE centre.

Thursday 15 May

On my last day as mayor I nipped into the town hall for an early "wash-up" meeting on last week's Community Volunteers Event. Last Friday we got a two-page coverage in the local press with loads of pictures. We decided that it was a great success and we agreed what we could do to improve and that we would do all we could to make it an annual event.

I picked Barbara up in the afternoon to get back to the Town Hall for the Annual Council Meeting. As usual it was decked out in flowers and there were lots of guests in the public gallery. I start the meeting by calling for nominations for the Mayor and Councillor Beckett proposed Coun. Shelagh Derwent who represents Blacko. The speeches are all humerous but tradition dictates that the new Mayor doesn't hear them as she is still in the Mayor's parlour. The council then votes to accept the new Mayor and she is called in. I then vacate the Mayors seat. The new Mayor makes her declartion of office and tells everyone what she intends to do over the year. I then proposed the new deputy Mayor; my fellow ward councillor Marjorie Adams. Marjorie will then become the Mayor of Pendle in 12 months time.

Here's what I said;

I am pleased to propose Coun Marjorie Adams as deputy Mayor for 2008/9.

She has now represented Coates ward for over 10 years and is well known and respected in Barnoldswick and in Pendle. She also serves on Barnoldswick Town Council and lots of other community bodies.

I have known Coun. Adams for over 5 years and I find her to have a strong community commitment, an ability to tackle difficult jobs and is more than able to handle any situation. All of these attributes will be very useful as Deputy Mayor and when she becomes Mayor in a year’s time.

I shall be able to say a lot more about her next year but I hope that she enjoys her coming year as the Deputy Mayor of Pendle.

Tradition then has it that there is short speeches about the outgoing Mayor; this year it was made by Coun Margaret Bell for the Lib Dems, Coun Iqbal for Labour and Coun Pauline McCormick for Conservative.

I stand up in the council chamber to make my speech

The council then has a vote of thanks for the outgoing Mayor, to which I replied;

It is my great pleasure to be the first to congratulate our brand new mayor Councillor Derwent. I hope that Shelagh and the new Mayoress Ann McGeorge both enjoy their year as much as we have enjoyed ours.

Can I start by thanking my sister Barbara for doing such a splendid job as the Mayoress of Pendle. She has worked tirelessly for the borough and on top of that she has had to put up with me yawning every time that I got into the Mayoral car. She informs me that her Mayoress’s Charity Committee have over the year helped to raise the magnificent amount of £16,500 for our local charities.

Can I thank Jacqui, Neil and Colin, supported by Christine and Carol and not forgetting Pat Hudson who left at Christmas. They have all worked hard over the year, often above and beyond the call of duty, ensuring that we always got to where we needed to be at the right time. Can I also thank other council officers for their valued assistance during the year, in particular, Vaughan Jones and Deborah Carrins in Economic Development, Sue Madigan in communications and Richard Townson who took over the reins when Pat left.

We had decided from the start, that, whenever we could, we would attend events within Pendle and only go to a selected few outside of the Borough. But even so we attended over 375 events, over an extremely busy 12 months. I can’t list everything, but here is a little flavour of some of the things that we did;

I may be the first Mayor to have walked on the roof of the Town Hall and sat in old police cells in full regalia. I also enjoyed going around - Wallace and Grommet style - on a motor bike and sidecar to switch on the Christmas lights across the borough. And have been photographed in the press in lots of other unusual situations including with a giant green preying mantis.

We have probably now seen enough buffets to last us for the rest of our lives, but both Barbara and I have just about managed to keep our waist sizes the same as when we started. A contribution to this is our promotion of walking in Pendle’s wonderful countryside. We started by inviting residents to join us hiking the 45 mile Pendle Way. When we had completed the route, the walkers asked where we should go next, I suggested that we turned around and walk it the other way. Which we duly did.

We have also walked the 13 miles of the scenic Leeds & Liverpool Canal towpath from the Burnley boundary to the Craven boundary, which I can tell you is 28,388 footsteps. Also to promote the Pendle Walking Festival I stood on top of Pendle and our other hills of Boulsworth and Weets, dressed in my suit and with the chains on. The picture that appeared in the Nelson Leader featured me standing by the trig point on top of Pendle.
On one a subsequent visits to one of our Parish Councils, a parish councillor remarked that he had seen the picture in the paper and thought it was disgusting. “Did you see the state of that trig point?”, he said. So, he told me, he had gone up Pendle Hill, shortly after the picture had appeared and given the trig point a new coat of white paint. I subsequently got complaints from walkers on the hill that they couldn’t see the trig point in the mist!

I have tried to do my best to wave the flag for Pendle and my Mayor’s Blog (internet diary) was one way of doing this and has had weekly entries listing everything that we have done. It has now been viewed by well over 500 people. I haven’t managed to count how many times it says Pendle in the text but it must be in the thousands. I was contacted by a Mr Nutter who had viewed my blog from Indian Territories, Tulsa, USA. I replied to him that possibly some of his Nutter ancestors may have been witches and others could have been hung drawn and quartered. I also made contact with another Mayor with exactly the same name as me; Mayor Allan Buck, from Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada. Incidentally, whilst going around our area, I have been told on many occasions that I must be that Allan Buck who was the drummer in The Four Pennies, who had a top of the charts hit with Juliet in the 1960’s. All that I could tell them is that; I can’t play the drums.

This year we held the first Pendle Business Awards at the Fence Gate. It was a great night and very well received by our many successful local businesses. I have also held several business lunches to encourage our up and coming local businesses and have also visited many of their factories and offices. At Christmastime we went around the borough’s town centre buying our presents and encouraging everyone in Pendle to also shop locally.

Last week, we hosted the first Pendle Community Volunteers Awards, to honour the unpaid and unsung heroes, who give their time freely for the community. The ceremony was held here in this chamber and was crammed to the rafters with our community groups.

We have opened up this Town Hall on many occasions and held receptions for many different groups including Friends of the Parks, the local winners of the best kept villages in Lancashire, and lots of schools, youth and senior citizens groups. At one of the school visits, when I asked if they had any questions, one of them pointed at the chains and asked “who polishes the necklace”. And “was I the President of Pendle”? Another youngster asked if that was picture of the Queen, to which I answered “yes, and who is the other picture”, - “Prince Charming” came back the reply.

I am most interested in the regeneration of our towns in Pendle and of course we were very honoured to receive Prince Edward to the opening of the new Number One Market Street here in Nelson. We have also launched lots of other new regeneration projects including of course the new shopping palace; Boundary Mill Store. Last week we opened the new Discover Pendle Centre and this week we laid the foundation stone for the exciting Arts Culture and Entertainment centre in Nelson.

On an extremely cold day, only a few weeks ago, we visited all of the Parks in the boroughs and later held a reception for their successful Friends Groups here at the Town Hall.

We have also joined birthday celebrations for quite a few of our senior citizens, including Hetty who was 100. She said that if she had known that
there was going to be such a fuss being made, she would have gone out for the day.

I have attended meetings of all of the 16 Town and Parish Councils within Pendle to let them know what we were doing. And we have also visited all of our secondary schools and toured the imaginative new Pendle Vale School for the Future development. We have also managed to visit, or invited them here to the Town Hall, many of our primary schools in Pendle.

We visited the House of Lords and had strawberries and cream with their lordships, we had a splendid dinner in the Commons, we had cucumber sandwiches on the lawn at Buckingham Palace and recently we had a St Georges English Tea Party in the cells under the Town Hall. And when we hosted the Mayors Tour of Pendle, where we welcome Mayors from Lancashire and Craven and show them around our borough, instead of a lavish lunch, we stopped off for fish and chips at Kelbrook Chippy.

Now that we have completed our 12 months of office can I on behalf of my sister Barbara and myself, say thank you to everyone for making our year so memorable. And, one last thing, we have cut lots of ribbons during our time in office, almost always with a pair of blunt scissors, so we should like to present our new mayor Shelagh with a brand new pair of sharp scissors so that she doesn’t have the same problem.


Barbara and I were then presented with our Past Mayor of Pendle badges.

The new Mayor of Pendle presents Barbara and I with past Mayor and Mayoress badges

Following this, the meeting adjourns and we all go over to the Silverman Hall for a buffet tea. I hope that this is my last buffet for a long while!

The Annual meeting of Pendle Council then continues at 6.30pm, where who runs the Council is decided. As the Council is now hung or balanced, with 20 Lib Dem, 16 Conservative, 10 Labour, 2 BNP and 1 Independent. After much debate and two adjournments, the council voted 18 to 17 that the Lib Dems continue to run the administration. Lib Dems will hold the Leader of the Council; Coun John David, and all of the places on the Executive, which is the committee that runs Pendle. The leaders of the Conservative and Labour groups had been invited to be on this but declined. The outcome of all that, was that I gained a place on the executive, with responsibility for Economic Development and Tourism. I have many year experience in this area so I was pleased that I will be able to continue my work of improving our town centres and increasing our business and jobs in Pendle. However because the LibDems do not now have a majority, I lost the chairmanship of the Licensing Committee to a Conservative, but will continue to serve on that committee. I also lost my seat on the Standards Committee.

Friday 16 May
Luxury - my first day off in a very long while – and absolutely nothing in my Outlook diary! During the last 12 months I have only taken one week’s holiday and that was last June. So I took the opportunity to do very little, apart from looking what needs doing in the garden, buying a few shirts and stuff at Boundary Mill and watching a bit of rugby league on TV in the evening. Around here we often get interesting aircraft flying past, several times a year we can usually see the Red Arrows going somewhere and today we had an old Dakota airplane which flew low over the house. A fitting end to an interesting week.

And finally another picture of Pendle Hill

showing the lots of walkers on the footpath up the Big End

This week we hold the first Pendle Community Volunteers Awards, receive the Friends of the Parks groups, visit Primet school and local business

Tuesday 6 May
The days are starting to warm up now and in my fields I have dog violets, primroses, celendine, bluebells, plus of course dandelions and daisies all brightening up the day. I had no Mayoral engagement but I did need to sort out the details for our Community Volunteers Awards on Wednesday.
In the evening it was off to the West Craven Area Committee at 7pm.

Wednesday 7 May
At 2pm it was Dorothy Carthy’s memorial service at St Andrews in Barnoldswick. You may have seen an earlier blog where we had visited Dorothy before she moved up to Scotland to be nearer to her daughter. Sadly soon after moving, Dorothy had a heart attack and died. The service was full of insight into a very strong but friendly woman.
In the evening it was the first Pendle Community Volunteers Awards which I have joined forces with Pendle Community Networks to put on in the Council Chamber. It was a very warm night and we had over 120 people crammed into the Chamber. The event was very well received and we are looking forward to making it annual. We concluded with a buffet in the members Room. I had to stand up for most of the night with the civic chains on which weigh 5lbs so I was a bit tired by 10.00pm, when we finished.

I welcome everyone to the 1st Mayor of Pendle's Community Volunteers Awards

Here's what I said;

On behalf of the Borough of Pendle can I welcome everyone to the first Pendle Community Volunteers Awards. During my term of office as Mayor I have been immensely impressed by the commitment and dedication of our many voluntary groups. All of these groups have many people who give their time freely, day-in, day-out, year-in, year-out. In your many and diverse group and clubs, you don’t ask for any reward, you don’t even ask for any thanks, you just get on doing good for others.

This got me into thinking about how we could recognise and thank the volunteers who work actively to improve their community here in Pendle. We decided that we should pay tribute to Pendle’s unsung heroes and in particularly we wanted to thank the hard working and dedicated unpaid volunteers. So I talked to Pendle Community Network about how we could have an occasion where we would be able to thank you. We therefore decided to hold this first Pendle Community Volunteers Awards and we thought that it was very appropriate that we should hold it here at the Town Hall.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank Pendle Community Network for their support and involvement in the great deal of organisation that has gone into tonight’s event. In particular can I thank Laura Brown and Stephen Smith of P C N who have done most of the hard work.

Tonight we have 10 categories covering a wide range of roles and skills. I have taken the opportunity to visit many of your clubs, groups and organisations and have been fortunate to meet with many of you, I can tell you that I have been most impressed by all of you. It has been exceedingly difficult for me to decide who will receive these Pendle Community Volunteer Trophies but after long deliberation, we will, this evening, be able to announce the winner in each category. There are no winners or losers tonight, you are all winners. Everyone nominated will be presented with a framed certificate, unfortunately I am only able to choose one from each category to receive the trophy. The impressive trophies for tonight were produced by a local company, Merc Engineering Ltd in Barrowford. I do hope that you all enjoy the Pendle Community Volunteers Awards, that you all have a great night and that I have the opportunity to meet with you later.

The Winners

of the Mayor of Pendle’s Community Volunteer Awards were;

Young Achiever of the Year
Aamir Waris has won this award for the voluntary work he did organising the Mayor of Pendle’s Charity Dinner. The 16-year old is a student at Marsden Heights Community College. He worked as part of a small group to plan the charity dinner. As the main organiser, his role was to get the group together, arrange meetings and make sure that the event was a success. His main aim was to give something back to the community.

Leader of the Year
Susan Whitehead has won this award for her voluntary work with Building Bridges.
Over the past five years she has helped deliver the Citizenship Education Programme to pupils in Pendle’s primary and secondary schools.
Very committed and enthusiastic, Susan is described by her peers as: “pleasant, generous and never afraid to take on a challenge!” She is one of Building Bridges’ most dedicated volunteers. She is an independent, self-directed person, who is able to communicate effectively and contribute greatly to the rest of the team.

Volunteer of the Year
Samina Kauser has been given this award for her many voluntary roles within the Pendle community. Despite fighting a serious illness, Samina has always given 110% to the voluntary work she has been involved with. Her main focus has been youth work, especially as Chair Person of Pendle Youth Action and Whitefield Youth Association. In addition, Samina has worked for the Government on eliminating terrorism and is currently working on a “gang”-related project with a group of teenagers. She is also a representative and spokesperson for Muslim women in Pendle and has promoted their viewpoint in National publications.

Young Volunteer of the Year
Sarah Kelly has been given this award for the extra curricula activities she is involved with at Fisher More RC High School and in her local parish church of St Peter and Paul in Barrowford. Sarah is actively involved in the Youth St Vincent de Paul Society, including helping to organise the Old People’s Christmas Party. She also helps with the Christmas Parcels project, which gives some Christmas cheer to those less fortunate. Each box is packed with festive foods and delivered to local people. Sarah is often seen fundraising for various youth projects, such as sending young people to Lourdes to help the sick.

Community Organisation of the Year
Pendle Samaritans has been awarded this accolade for its years of dedication. The Nelson branch was established in May 1973. It was set up by a group of people who recognised the need to support those who were finding life difficult for whatever reason.
This service has been available 24/7 365 days a year, for 35 years. Last year the branch had over 22,000 calls. The volunteers offer confidential, non-judgemental support to anyone who contacts them. They give an average of 16 hours per month of their time to the organisation and every year attend a training course to keep their skills up-to-date and refreshed. You can guarantee there will always be a caring voice and a sympathetic ear at the other end of the phone.

Environment Project of the Year
Colne in Bloom has been given this award for making Colne a beautiful place to live, work and visit. The group was set up just over five years ago and has approximately 30 members. They are responsible for all the flowers which have been placed in planters, barrels and troughs throughout the town. They plant winter and summer, conduct regular litter-picks and look out for graffiti, fly-tipping, fly-posting and any damage around the town. They involve local primary schools with games, planting and competition. They are the official adopter of Colne Railway Station, having had the statue of Millie created and erected there. They have just secured funding for a water feature in the newly refurbished shopping precinct and have started a “reducing plastic bags” campaign with the shops in Colne.

Play Setting of the Year
Rocking Horse Club - Nelson has been given this award for its pre-school and after-school services and activities. The Rocking Horse Club is community-based and is the largest not-for-profit childcare and education provider in the North of England. It offers numerous facilities, including a breakfast club, after-school club and holiday club, as well as nursery education, which is available all day, every working day. The club employs over 75 people, of which 70 come from the Pendle area. A total of 466 children are catered for each week and over 50,000 nutritious 2-course meals are provided per year. It is a very popular and well-used nursery.

Community Building of the year
New Road Community Centre in Earby has won this award for providing a rich and varied programme of events and activities to meet the needs of the local community. The centre seeks to encourage community cohesion by providing an extensive range of activities including, fairs and craft days, Age Concern groups, a Luncheon Club, bingo afternoons, camera and history society meetings, walking groups, environmental projects, theatre and music nights, youth clubs, parent and crèche groups, Duke of Edinburgh projects, table-tennis, trips out to the theatre and its very own amateur dramatics society. It also provides courses in first-aid, computing, Italian, cookery and dancing. There are currently 36 groups that use the centre.

Volunteer Children’s Worker of the Year
Malcolm Shaw has been given this award for his work with children during his role as Secretary at Thomas Street Bowling Club. He has held this position since 1964 and has dedicated a significant amount of his time to introducing and teaching crown green bowling skills to pupils from local schools. Malcolm organises a whole host of activities, including a Saturday morning club, taster days and a holiday programme. He is also planning on starting up a junior bowling league.

Lifetime Achievement
Margaret Hird as been given this prestigious award because of the many years she has dedicated to helping people in her local community. Margaret started her commitment to the voluntary sector when she joined St John’s Ambulance in Barrowford as a cadet, caring for the elderly in nursing homes. She then trained in first-aid and home-nursing, gaining her Grand Prior Award in 1957. She then worked as a weekend volunteer at Hartley Hospital, before training in nursing at Blackburn Royal Infirmary. She became Divisional Nursing Officer for St John’s Ambulance and is now a trustee and secretary. She was appointed Community Midwifery Sister in 1965, this is when she started doing voluntary work for social services, caring for three families with special needs. She also cared for pre-school children at her local church crèche and ran a Saturday club for up to 30 children. Margaret is on the Church Council and in 1994 took on the role of Covenant Secretary, which she continues to do today. As a member of the Women’s Fellowship, she organised the syllabus and arranged outings and activities for the members in a bid to improve their lives. In 1999 she was elected onto the committee of Diabetes UK and became treasurer. She is now the local representative. In 2003 she attended a self-management course, which enabled her to help people who were suffering with long-term illnesses. She became a tutor and delivered her own courses – making physical and psychological differences to a lot of people’s lives. Margaret said: “I always remember that either potting plants in a friend’s garden, or planting a smile on someone’s face makes the world a better and brighter place for others and ourselves, and I am so thankful that I have the health to do this.”

The winners join me in the Mayor's Parlour

Thursday 8 May

The new Mayoral car has arrived another black Merc. and we get to use it for our last week in office, so Neil our attendant dressed up smartly for the occasion.

Neil gets ready to take us to our next engagement

I continued with our visits to local companies and today we went to Home Haven in Colne. They produce furniture for John Lewis and the Cotswold Company and we were shown around by Jonathan Hawley.

Jonathan shows us his stylish and comfortable furniture at Home Haven

The company is growing fast producing furniture that has strong design elements. Successful small businesses like these are the job creators of the future.
From there we went to have lunch with John Miller and the directors of Pendle Heritage Trust in the old barn at Barrowford. John gave me a copy of the latest newsletter which I had written an introduction for.

Outside the Heritage Centre barn after lunch

And then on to Daisy Communications in Nelson where we were shown around the rapidly growing company by Tony Dixon, who I have known for many years.

A welcome from Daisy on their monitor

The company employs well over 100 staff and is innovative about how it treats them. Whilst their we presented an award to the employee of the month.

Employee of the Month

Daisy Communications is a massive local success story and they keep winning business awards, including the 2007 Bank of Scotland Entrepreneurs Challenge.

I had a go at trying to ride their unicycle but failed

It is continuing to grow by acquisition and Daisy look to have plenty more in the pipeline.

Tony shows us the impressive working conditions

Friday 9 May
We have been visiting all of the secondary schools in Pendle and today we went to Primet High in Colne.

We try our hand at light refraction

The head; Mrs Walsh showed around the large school and as we normally find, the students look to be enjoying studying there.

I am often mistaken for the drummer of 60's group the Four Pennies

who was also called Allan Buck. So I tried my hand at the drums.

We toured the classrooms and then met up with the head boy and girl and other students for a chat.

We have a chat with students at Primet

Straight form there we went to Earby to launch the Pendle Cycle Festival.

Those bikes at the back cost thousands!

The press were out in force and we had arranged for Barbara’s husband Barry to bring a couple of bikes over foe us. So we joined the racing cyclists and directors of Cottages 4 you, the sponsors for the launch.
In the evening it was back to the Town Hall for a reception for the Friends of the Parks Groups. We had almost 70 there and I complimented them on their community spirit. We finished off with drinks and a buffet in the Members Room.

Friends of the Parks join us in the Council Chamber

Here's what I said;

On behalf of the Borough of Pendle can we welcome you all to the council chamber. Can I introduce Barbara Mitchell, my sister, who is the Mayoress. I am sure that you all know Colin Patten Pendle’s Parks & Recreation Manager, Julie Hibbert, Parks Outreach Officer and of course the Park Keepers. And we also have Coun Ann Kerrigan who has been the executive member for parks and recreation. I have invited you all here tonight because we wanted to give you a little thank you for all of the commitment and hard work that you put into our local parks.

During my term of office I have done my best to highlight our excellent Parks here in Pendle and the significant investments that have been going into them. I have been most impressed with the improvements that are taking place costing millions of pounds. A couple of weeks ago when it was absolutely freezing, it was my great pleasure to tour all of our parks in Pendle.

Including
Alkincotes Park in Colne; which is a wonderfully well kept Park with a rich history.

Heyhead Park in Brierfield; where I was previously a councillor for 12 years, so I knew it well. The excellent bowling green there must have one of the best panoramas in the country

Victoria Park in Barrowford and Nelson; I am told that is has the “Last Elm in Pendle”. Only last week-end we opened the new £150k bridge across the river, with a brass band playing in the new bandstand, which we had also opened last year. Incidentely, opening the band stand was the first civic engagement for me where I had a placard waving Salvation Army man protesting in front of me. I think that they are now happy in their new home.

Barrowford Park; which always well used, particularly on sunny days like this week. And where we planted wild roses in the bog garden. And on my visit I was informed that there were far too many drakes and not enough ducks

Walverden Park in Nelson; “the woodland in the town” with some unique trees and where more investment is going in.

Valley Gardens in Barnoldswick; our smallest park but much used by everyone in the town

Victory Park in Barnoldswick; with new rugby pitches and large pavilion now being built.

Lettcliffe Park also in Barnoldswick; the Boroughs only Country Park with long distance views right up into the Yorkshire Dales. And very windy which is excellent for the kites festival which is held there.

Marsden Park in Nelson; the flagship of Pendle Parks, with refurbished Marsden Hall and lots of other interesting features including the wishing gate which together with a giant green preying mantis we re-opened last year.

Sough Park; where we planted a native silver birch tree by the beck

Ballgrove Park in Colne; with its many wildlife areas and where we were shown how it looked when the largest tannery in Europe was there. I can only guess at how it smelled. Now only a few stones show that it was ever there.

Friends of the Parks; I noted on my visit, were all very friendly and really cared about their own park. I was most impressed by the dedication and commitment of all of the Friends Groups. You all had ownership and were prepared to roll your sleeves up to make improvements to your park.

Park Keepers; who are all young and all very knowledgeable about their parks and they had lots of specialisms which help to improve their areas.

Saturday 10 May
At around 11.30 we arrived to open the new Discover Pendle Centre outside Boundary Mill Store at the end of the M65. The day was warm again and we had Burnley Youth Theatre and a Jazz Band playing. After making a short speech I cut the ribbon to officially open the all ready successful centre.

A pair of sharp scissors for a change!

Here's what I said;

It is my great privilege to open the Discover Pendle Centre at the new Boundary Mill Store, at the end of the M65. Those of us who live and work in Pendle already know what an extra special part of the country this is. With panoramic views of Pendle Hill at every turning, with our award winning villages, our fascinating heritage and with probably the best stretch of canal in the Britain. Pendle has such lots to offer to visitors discovering our area.

Here’s just a few of the things that Pendle Offers;
I have been called the walking Mayor, so let me start with our hundreds of great footpaths, bridle ways and tracks just waiting to be discovered. To help you do that, we have the Pendle Walking Festival starting on August 30th with 9 days of free guided walks for all ages and abilities.

Pendle also has an extremely scenic and multi-awrd winning Leeds & Liverpool canal stretching from Burnley towards Skipton, to walk, bike or boat and with a new marina for around 100 boats at Reedley and with an open day next Sunday.

We have plenty of lovely winding country roads just waiting to be explored on foot, bike, horse, or by car.

We have lots and lots of interesting old pubs and places to eat out in Pendle, in particular bonny Colne on the hill with its many and varied restaurants.

We have great sports and swimming facilities are to be found at Pendle Wavelengths and the new Inside Spa in Nelson. We also have excellent baths and sporting facilities here in Colne and at West Craven

At Colne Muni and the historic Pendle Hippodrome theatre in Colne they perform great shows and musicals. And due to open in Spring of next year is the brand new ACE centre in Nelson. This will offer many leisure facilities including a 200 seat performance arena, recording studios, arts projects, function rooms restaurant and bar.

And not forgetting our wonderful Pendle Hill, which is only just short of being a mountain. It’s a great walk up the hill with panoramic views from the top. You can stand where George Fox had his vision and went on to form the Quakers. And not forgetting the Pendle Witches who’s story carries on to this day, with plenty of their history still for you to discover.

In Pendle we also have many innovative businesses such as Farm House Biscuits who are suppliers to Harrods and Fortnum & Masons. World class aero space such as Rolls Royce, Silentnight – the largest bed producer in Europe and many more successful local business. Our fledgling tourism businesses will also soon begin to benefit from the large investments into Discover Pendle.

So there are lots and lots to do in what I presently call the “hidden gem that is Pendle”. I expect to have to change that to the “gem that is Pendle” when the millions who come to visit Boundary mill also visit the Discover Pendle Centre and see what is available around here and Discover Pendle for themselves.

Opening the new Discover Pendle Centre

I had asked to go for lunch at the new Banny’s Fish & Chip restaurant at Boundary Mill and we were not disappointed. Fish, chips, and mushy peas with a cup of tea. Excellent! This restaurant will I am sure soon be challenging Harry Ramsden’s.

Fish and Chips - lovely!

After lunch we went to Marsden Grange in Nelson to present 80th and 90th birthday greetings and flowers.

Happy Birthday!

In the evening we went to Pendle Hippodrome Theatre in Colne for the Last Night of the Proms performed by the Pendle Youth Orchestra. This event has now been going for many years and supports the Orchestra.

Pendle Youth Orchestra give their best at the Proms

They played music including the Battle of Britain March, Mars the bringer of War, Moondance, Pomp and Circumstance, Sailors Hornpipe, Jerusalem and of course Rule Britannia. A great night and well performed by our young musicians.

And finally, another picture of of our wonderful Pendle Hill on a nice warm and sunny day.

This week we tour Farmhouse Biscuits, visit local businesses, join Colne Noyna for Charter Dinner, open Victoria Park bridge and go to the polls

Monday 28 April
We went into Nelson to tour Farmhouse Biscuits and were met by its owner Phil McIver. Phil used to be in farming but when times got tough they started selling chickens and farm house baked cakes and biscuits from a market stall. The chickens soon went as did the cakes and they concentrated on biscuits. Over the year Phil has continued to expand the business and is now one of the largest employers in the Borough. They supply biscuits to Harrods and Fortnum & Masons and export all over the world. After getting kitted out in protective gear including hairnet and hat we were shown the mixing of the ingredients and also the lines where the biscuits were baked. Phil also took us around the massive warehouse that they have and where a bull nose Morris van is stored. Afterwards we completed the tour in the shop which has lots and lots of biscuits on sale.
In the evening I continued with the election campaign by canvassing in our Coates ward in Barnoldswick.


Tuesday 29 April
In the morning I visited First Aurora in Brierfield as one of my programme of company visits.

I "give a hand" with the new metal bending machine at First Aurora

They produce stainless steel for lots of catering outlets including MacDonald’s. The council had provided a the company with a grant towards a new metal bending machine.

Now this is more like it, welding - I am the one on the right!

The Lancashire Telegraph photographer Andy turned up and suggested that we had a welding shot. We did this and it went into the paper where I looked like Darth Vader from Star Wars with the protective face mask on.

Style Cafe's impressive new work shop

From there we went to Style Café in Colne. I continue to be amazed by the number and quality of our local businesses and this is another great one. They supply high quality coffee machines across Britain and we had a look round their showrooms and work space.

I wake up and smell the coffee at Style Cafe

The map of where their sales were was shown to me and it shows that London and the South East is where they do best.
I nipped into the office and had a chat with Tom as I haven’t managed to get in for a while.

Colne Noyna Rotary dinner at the Black Bull

In the evening I went to the Black Bull in Gisburn for the 29th Charter anniversary dinner of Rotary Club of Colne Noyna. It was a good meal and some interesting conversations besides having the main speaker poke a bit a fun at me.

Wednesday 30 April
Today I swapped my car and living on a farm I need a 4 wheel drive. A local dealer had been a dead loss in selling me a car and I sometimes wonder where car sales people come from. The outcome of that was that someone recommended another dealer over 40 miles away, and they knew how to treat customers, so I went there. They made the transaction easy and I was soon driving away in my new car.

In the afternoon and evening I delivered leaflets and letters to Coates ward residents. When we do these together they always take a long time. So my legs were aching by the time that I had finished.

Thursday 1st May
Local Election Day - May Day. I was helping manning the polling station just after 8am. “Knocking up” followed where we go round to our supporters to remind them that it is voting day. It was a very long day as the polling stations now open until 10.00pm. After a shower and change of clothes it was off to the count at the sports hall in Colne. As soon as I got in at around 11pm it was obvious that my party the Liberal Democrats were not going to have a good night in Pendle. We have now run the council for several years and were anticipating maybe a few losses. But we lost more than we expected, so whilst we are still the largest group on the council it has now gone to no overall control. It was 2.45am on Friday before I got home at the end of a very long day.


Friday 2 May
Apart from a meeting with Richard and Neil at the town hall to go through our remaining programme of events. Our term of office ends on May 15th at the Annual Council meeting and we have tried to do things different and make a change. From the comments that I get back from people we seemed to have achieved that. The rest of the day was a quite one and after a very busy week I certainly needed it.

Saturday 3 May
At 11am on a warm and sunny day we went to First Class Child Care in Maurice Street, Nelson for their Third Anniversary. We were shown around their impressive facilities for pre-school age children and spent a bit on the cake stall and tombola – which I never win.

Staff and friends at First Class Child Care's 3rd birthday

In the afternoon we opened the new £150,000 bridge at Victoria Park which is in Barrowford and Nelson and this bridge across Pendle Water joins the two together.

Declaring the new bridge at Victoria Park well and truly open

The Water Brass Band was playing in the bandstand when we cut the ribbon to declare the new bridge well and truly open. Whilst having a Slater’s local ice cream we listened to the band playing on this warm day. I reminded the Friends of the Park group that last time I was there only a few weeks ago it was absolutely freezing, so this was much nicer.

Cutting the ribbon with the obligatory blunt scissors

Here is what I said;

Thank you for inviting me here today for the opening of the new bridge at Victoria Park.

The original bridge over Pendle Water was built in the1930s and over many decades thousands of local people had enjoyed walking across it, to be able to get to all parts of Victoria Park. Unfortunately in 2006 it was discovered that the structure was unsafe and a new bridge was required. The old bridge was closed in September 2006.

This impressive and very stylish new bridge spans 56 feet and has a concrete deck carried on an arched steel frame. It weighs 54 tonnes which is 11 tonnes of steel and 41 tonnes of concrete. The steel is know as weathering steel which develops a thin protective coating layer of dark rust that prevents further corrosion. This is good for the environment and saves on future maintenance costs. The technique of using weather steel is new technology and this bridge is the first in Pendle of this type.

There has been an investment of £150,000 for this special bridge. I should like to thank the Friends of the Park, Park keepers, park staff and Councillors for getting the investment and construction into place. So that today we certainly have a beautiful bridge to be proud of.

Recently I was privileged to be shown around our parks by the Friends of the Parks groups together with the park keepers. Here at Victoria I was shown the many improvements and what was being planned for the future. The commitment of the Friends of Victoria Park impressed me and I encourage everyone to support them in every way about caring for your Park.

We also have lots of great parks in all parts of Pendle and with the very large investments going into them in recent years they are improving very quickly. All across Pendle I was most impressed with the new developments and commitment of everyone involved.

It is my great privilege to declare the new Victoria Park Bridge across Pendle Water well and truly open.

And finally, another picture of our wonderful Pendle Hill that has inspired many (including me) over the century's. And you even get one of our other wonders - dry stone walls in the foreground.

This week we see Blacko, Bradley and Walter Street Schools, hold winners dinners, fly the flag, enjoy Jekyll & Hyde and cut Park High's 50th cake

Monday 21 April

The days are starting to warm up a bit, the swallows have found their way back to my garage and the primroses in my field give out a bright splash of colour.

Summer's on its way

We are busy making arrangements for the Pendle Community Volunteers Awards on May 7th. The awards are for me to be able to pass on the Borough’s thanks the army of volunteer workers who work week in, week out to support their community. I met with our communications team to sort out the PR and then with Pendle Community Networks who are helping organise the event. All of the nominations are now in and we shall soon be deciding the winners to be announced on the night.


Wednesday 23 April
At 9am we went along to Blacko village school to present the chess certificates.

Presentation of the Walton Chess Tournament certificate

We were shown into the school assembly where I asked the children if they knew what the special day was. And they did – St Georges’s Day of course.

We ask Blacko School what the special day is

Back to the Town Hall in Nelson in the afternoon to greet Walter Street School who had come to visit us. As usual I went into the Council Chamber, in my full regalia of gown and chains. I also showed the children how big the Mayors seat is and also how uncomfortable it is.

Walter Street children join me at the Mayor's chair

We showed them the mace which is actually a weapon with which the attendant can defend me if required, although we haven’t used it for that purpose yet. We showed them the Mayors cocked hat, size
7¼“, which is almost 100 years old and is far too big for my head, but perhaps some earlier Mayor’s had bigger heads than me.

Andy - press photographer takes a shot on the roof

Then, we did a bit of a first (probably) as I went onto the Town Hall roof for a photo of me and the flag of St George which we fly on our public buildings.

This is one of Andy's shots with me looking like I am holding the flag pole up

Both press photographers turned up and the weather was fine and sunny so we got a few good shots.

Another of Andy's shots with the flag of St George flying over the Town Hall

We then went down into the basement where we had set out one of the old police cells for a St Georges day English tea party. We had invited members of staff from other countries to join us. So we had people from Jamaica, Greece, New Zealand, Scotland and Pakistan joined us for cucumber sandwiches (with the crust cut off of course) and cream scones with our cups of tea. We all got on splendidly and compared how different parts of the world did things.

Into the old cells for our English high tea

Here’s what I would have said;
Today is St George's Day, which is England’s national day – the perfect opportunity to invite everyone living here to come together and celebrate the country in which we all live.
Today we all lead such busy lives that little of our time is devoted to appreciating our country. That is why St George’s Day, is so important.

It's the one day of the year when the whole of the nation can unite in celebration of England: its past, present and future; its countryside, towns and cities; its rich harvests, thriving industry and commerce – and, most importantly, the people who live in this land - People who live in a caring, tolerant and democratic society, who enjoy freedom of worship and freedom of speech. People who have much to celebrate.

Here are a few facts about St George;
St George was born in Cappadocia Turkey in 280AD, died on 23 April 303AD in Nicomedia Palestine –when he unfortunately lost his head!
The ancient tale tells us that St George had slain the dragon and rescued the princess
The Flag of St George was flown by Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake and by the Pilgrim Fathers when they went to discover America
St George is the Patron Saint of Scouting
Pendle usually flies the flag of St George on all its public buildings

Please enjoy the English tea of cucumber sandwiches and cream scones in these historic police cells where in times past some Nelson miscreants would have spent a bit of time.

And of course Shakespeare wrote; Cry God for Harry, England and St. George!

Thursday 24 April
I attended Reedley Court to support the Council with the appeal against the Shamania Festival event License which as the Licensing Committee we had granted some months back. Barristers where representing both the council and the objectors and being Chairman of Licensing I was there as a witness. However the district judge decided as this was in effect a re-hearing and what had happened at the Committee was not relevant to the day. So I was released, and as the case was scheduled to take around 3 hours I was glad to do other things. I heard later that the judge had still given the go-ahead for the event with a limit on attendees at 1500. This was slightly more than attended last year at 1300.
In the evening we went to see Jekyll and Hyde the musical at Colne’s Hippodrome Theatre. The impressive old theatre is run entirely by volunteers funded by what they take at the box office.

We are greeted at Pendle Hippodrome to see the excellent Jekyll & Hyde

The professional standard show with excellent acting and singing was well received by the audience. I thought that the sound and lighting were excellent and set design outstanding. We had been warned that it could be considered slightly raunchy, but they said that you can’t put of Oklahoma every year! We thoroughly enjoyed it, well done The Pendle Hippodrome Theatre Company.

Friday 25 April
We needed an early start to be at Bradley school in Nelson for their assembly. We always enjoy watching the children getting prizes and certificates for their efforts and we were there to present our chess certificates. Afterwards we were shown around the school which is full and probably needs more space. It is an old style school building with big windows and classrooms.
From there I nipped in to Pendle Community Networks office to agree the winners of the Community Volunteers Awards. I then walked back to the Town Hall and signed over 125 letters which we are sending out to invite the Friends of the Parks to our Reception. Incidentally have you ever tried signing your name lots of times – I can tell you that your signature takes on a life of its own. I once had to sign 2500 individual letters to residents when I was standing for election and had just had my tonsils whipped out so wasn’t feeling in the best of health. I did get elected as it turned out.

Winners Dinners! Pendle Business Award Winners lunch at the Town Hall

Then we had the last of our Business Lunches, at this one I had invited the winners of the Pendle Business Awards. I was going to call it Winners Dinners but decided instead to call it Winners Lunch as I am not sure if they still called it dinner as we used to. It was an excellent lunch and I got everyone to tell us why they started their own businesses. It was most illuminating.

Saturday 26 April
Off to Colne for Rotary’s Stroke Awareness day. I had my blood pressure checked but was busy sorting the photograph out so the reading showed slightly high. I shall have to check it again when I not busy doing stuff.

Blood pressure check up

From there we went down to Park High School for their 50th anniversary. I have been trying to get to as many schools in Pendle as possible but I have been to Park High much more than the others, for different events that they have held.

We join Park High for their 50th birthday

The sports hall was full of present day students, ex-students, staff and ex-staff. I told them that I was wearing the same old Colne Chains of Office that were worn on that day 50 years ago. I also showed them the Birtwhistle Diamond that the Mayoress was wearing.

Cutting the 50th birthday cake which is being distributed to senior citizens

Interestingly I met a gentleman who used to teach at the school and was also the last Mayor of the Borough of Colne, before we all got joined together into Pendle. I asked him if he had had the gas lamps installed outside his house – he did, and was the last Mayor to get them, one of which is now in Colne Library. On an earlier entry in this Blog we have a photograph of it.
In the evening I attended the Burnley & Pendle Music Society to hear the Mather String Quartet at Christ Church in Nelson. The programme included Haydn’s string quartet in C major (The Emperor), Shostakovich’s string quartet No 7 in F sharp minor and Mendelssohn’s string quartet No 2 in A minor. The young musicians - all from the Royal Northern College of Music - told me afterwards that they had enjoyed playing this evening -and it showed. I asked them where they were from and they told me Gloucester, Dublin, Hartlepool and Reykjavic. So I welcomed them to Pendle.

And finally another picture of Pendle Hill - this one taken at night and showing the great whale shape of it.

This week Barbara gets a surpise birthday cake, we visit community centres, tour all of the parks, celebrate Doreen's 90th and open the Spring Fair

Monday 14 April
It was the Mayoress’s (my sister Barbara) birthday today and I had remembered - after she had reminded me a few times - to get her a card and a pressy. We have a busy week in front of us with around 20 engagements, so we started with a meeting at Pendle Community Networks to discuss the forthcoming Pendle Community Volunteers Awards.

Some hand made birthday cards for Barbara

From there we went with Laura their Marketing Manager to Christ Church on Carr Road in Nelson. They are one of the nominees for an award so we were given a tour of the building and met with lots of groups using it. We followed this with lunch with them in their café.

Here's your birthday cake

Christ Church is unusual in that there are Roman Catholic and Methodist Church congregations using the same building.

Computer wizz kids at the Rocking Horse club

From there we went to the Rocking Horse Club on Walton Lane in Nelson which is one of the largest children’s centres in Britain with over 460 children attending. The head of the centre was proud of what they had achieved – and quite right too.
We then travelled to Earby to the New Road Community Centre which is housed in an old school. Here we met with just some of the groups who were using the facilities.

The New Road manager and some of the user groups have a chat with us

They range from toddlers groups, to a youth club, to slimming world, to Age Concern pop-ins. They were all very enthusiastic about what the centre meant to them.

Tuesday 15 April
They say that one swallow doesn’t make a summer but I saw my first one today and it feels like mid winter. It fact the weather is still so cold that I bet the birds wished that they were back in sunny Africa.
Today we visited Grassroots Family Centre at St Phillips Church in Nelson. This centre is run by the Diocese of Blackburn and we were met by Suzanne who showed us round. It never fails to surprise me that we have excellent centres such as this which I hadn’t heard about.

Holy Saviour's parishioners lay on a nice lunch

Then we went for lunch at Holy Saviours also in Nelson. The parishioners made us most welcome and we managed to have a chat with most of them over a sandwich. They are obviously proud of what they have achieved with their centre.

Gisburn Road lets me have a go with the puppets

Over then to Barnoldswick to see the new Gisburn Road Children’s Centre. This brand new facility for parents and children will work with health services, the job centre, and others to provide a wide range of support for the family.
We then called in at the Barnoldswick Pensioners Club on Frank Street in where a bingo session had started so we had to be very quiet. For the last game I was asked to call the numbers – something that I hadn’t done before so I got a bit of banter about my calling.

I would never get a job as a bingo caller

The centre is self-funded by the club who put on something most days, which is much appreciated by their members.
In the evening I got out on the doorstep supporting my group in the local election campaign.

Wednesday 16 April
In the afternoon we went again to Marsden Grange in Nelson. This is an excellent home for our senior citizens and today we helped to celebrate Doreen Widdows 90th birthday.
In the evening I got very cold and wet again knocking on doors in Barnoldswick for the election campaign.


Thursday 17 April
It is another very cold day with bitter east winds coming straight here from Siberia.

We meet with the Susan from the Friends Group and Michelle the Park Keeper at Barrowford

Today we are starting our tour all the parks in Pendle, we first visited Barrowford Park and were met there by Julie the Parks Outreach Officer, Michelle the Park Keeper together with Susan and Ian from the Friends Group. We were shown some of the issues concerning this park including the fact that the ducks are heavily outnumbered by the drakes.

The press ask us all to ruin our knee joints for this posed shot

Before we went we planted a wild rose in the new bog garden.
We then went to Victoria Park, which is part in Barrowford and part in Nelson, to meet with Carole and the Friends Group to see their issues. Michelle is also the Park Keeper for this park. We were very impressed by the commitment of all of the Friends Groups, who really showed us how much they cared for their local parks.

The hard working group of Friends at Walverden Park show us around

We then travelled on to Walverden Park in Nelson and met Keith and others from their Friends Group with Aaron the Park Keeper. This park is getting much needed investments of around £200k.

Marsden Park with Pendle Hill peeking through in the background

We then went up to Marsden Park and had a quick buffet lunch at the old hall.
In the afternoon we called at Heyhead Park in Brierfield and met John and others from the Friends Group with Aaron again who is their Park Keeper.

I am sure that not many bowling greens have a view as good as that

This park used to be in my ward when I was a councillor for this neck of the woods so I still knew it pretty well.

The "all weather" Brierfield bowling club don't seem to care much about the cold

The bowlers were enjoying a game in the cold weather. We certainly breed them tough up here!

Carole and the Friends of Alkincoates give us a warm welcome

Our final visit was to one of the largest Parks in Pendle which is Alkincoates in Colne. We were shown round by Carol and others from the Friends with Matthew the Park keeper. We had already been to this park a couple of times to open the new band stand area and the play area last year.

I planted this evergreen tree last summer and its doing rather well

It is a wonderfully well kept park with lots to offer everyone including a woodland walk. Here we saw lots of birds including a Jay and we also heard, what we were told, was a nuthatch. When we arrived at the children's play area I had to ask a few "big kids" to please get off the swings and leave it for the youngsters, which they did. The Park is being promoted as Pendle’s bid for a big government investment in parks.
In the evening we were back on the knocker again where we had some interesting chats with local people.

Friday 18 April
It’s still very, very cold! We continued our parks visits and started at Valley Gardens in Barnoldswick. This is probably the smallest park in the Borough but is used as a pleasant walk. It has an old mill race which used to power the corn mill but today it only grows water cress.
Staying in the Town we then went down to Victory Park to see the £1.5m investments including a new Multi Use games Area (MUGA), new pavilion, new children’s play area and new Rugby pitches.

The new Victory park Pavilion starts to take shape

The park is used for lots of games and with these new investments will be used even more.
Still in Barlick we went up to Lettcliffe Park which must be the highest we have in the Borough.

The renovated bandstand area at Lettcliffe offers lots of performance opportunities

Lettcliffe is the only County Park operated by Pendle in the Borough. The wind chill factor here was severe as we looked around this interesting Park with its sheltered, tiered band stand area. We hope to be able to put on live performances here in summer. We also hold the popular children’s kite festival here because of the windy aspect.

Just one of the impressive stone work items at Marsden

We then travelled to Marsden Park in Nelson to meet Alison from the friends group for a look around probably the main park in the Borough and where most of the parks staff is situated.

This is the fascinating old sundial where you can see the time all over the world

It has had very big investments in it in recent years and Marsden Old Hall has been renovated and is now used for lots of activities. Last summer we were very privileged to re-open the unique wishing gate in the park.

You can make a wish at the Wishing Gate by putting a leaf in one of the holes

After a quick buffet lunch with the Friends, park keepers, and Colin Patton the Parks Manager we set off for Sough Park.

I help to plant the silver birch tree which looks great by the beck

This small park is well looked after and here we planted a silver birch tree by the beck. We had time for a chat with the gardener who was clearing weeds already from the flower beds.

Jerry shows me around Ball Grove

On then to Ball Grove Park where until around 30 years ago the largest tannery in Europe was situated. We met Jerry from the Friends and Park Keeper Matthew. Jerry was a mine of information about the site and what was there previously. This is more of a wild life park than a formal one, with its large lake with plenty of ducks on. On of them had 12 tiny ducklings in tow.

The young duckings stick close to mum

Now there is not much evidence of the massive tannery works that were once there, but we were shown the brick outline of what would have been the base to the chimney. It was still freezing and raining, so we were rather glad to get back into the warm car afterwards.
When I got back home I had an email asking to write around a 350 word for an introduction to the Pendle Heritage Newsletter, so I will have to find time to fit that in somehow.

Saturday 19 April
In the morning I went along to Linden Road in Earby to open the Earby and Kelbrook Senior Citizens Welfare Association Spring Fair.

Flowers for sale at the spring Fair

We were met by Lou Stott their chairman and I then had a look around the stalls and bought a few Eccles cakes for later.

I can never resist the cake stall

After saying a few words about what I had been doing during the Mayoral year, I declared the Spring Fair open and then drew their 20 club where a happy lady won £40.

A press photo outside the centre

Whilst having a cup of tea, I chatted to some of the resident who was attending, including an interesting lady who had been moved to Earby as an evacuee from London but then stayed on after the war and got married here.

We spotted this fine example of a 3-wheeled Reliant Robin in the car park

The Linden Road building was built around 20 years ago and they are now looking forward to upgrading their kitchen. And finally, another picture of Proud Pendle, taken from Colne this time.

This week we visit Accrington Stanley, see the Tiffany Glass collection, tour Number One Market Street, enjoy the jousting Knights and get on my bike

Monday 7 April
In the afternoon we delivered Focus leaflets for the forthcoming local Pendle Borough elections on May1st. There are 49 councillors on Pendle Council who every 4 years retire or stand for re-election. 17 council wards seats are being contested. There are new Town Councils being set up in Nelson and Colne so all of those seats are also being contested.

Tuesday 8 April
Today we went on the Mayors tour of Hyndburn. This area covers Accrington where Barbara - the Mayoress who is also my sister and I were born.

We are welcomed to Hyndburn by their Mayor & Mayoress

We started at the Dunkenhalgh hotel in Clayton-le-Moors. Robert a long time employee showed us around and gave us a history of the building.

We are shown around one of the haunted Dunkenhalge rooms

There was a building on that site as far back as 1285 which later came into the hands of the Rishton family who owned it until 1571.

Judge Walmesley - The hanging judge

Later the Walmesley’s bought it and one of their family – Judge Walmesley was known as the hanging judge. Robert indicated that there were plenty of ghosts still at the Dunkenhalgh.

Accrington Stanley - the club that wouldn't die

From there we went in the coach to Accrington Stanley FC for a look around and to hear some of its history. I had a bit of that in my pocket. My dad’s membership booklet from the 1948-9 season has his signwriting business advert on the back page.

My Dad's 1948-9 official handbook with his advert on the back

My dad was a signwriter and we lived in the Town and he had signwritten all of the big signs around the ground.
From there we went to the Haworth Art Gallery also in Accrington.

Wood carving in the Haworth Gallery

The gallery houses the largest public collection of Tiffany glass in Europe. The art-nouveau glass was the collection of a local man called Joseph Briggs who worked at Tiffany glass until the company closed in 1933. There was also a list of photographs of the Accrington Pals - the soldiers from the Town who all went out together to fight in the First World War. Many of them didn’t come back.

Remembering The Accrington Pals

From there we went to the Globe Centre for lunch. This is what used to be a massive engineering company premises making weaving and spinning machinery to export all over the world. After the business closed it was imaginatively changed into offices, restaurants and meeting areas.

Wednesday 9 April
Another full day, starting with an officer briefing for the Licensing Committee. The main part of the hearing which started at 1pm was for a review of the premises license for the Good Night Club in Nelson. The police had brought forward the review because of alleged crime and disorder at the premises. We saw two videos of fighting taking place in the early hours of the morning. The police were represented by their solicitor and the club owner by a barrister. The committee took around 3 hours to come to its decision, which was after 5.30. We agreed to amend the license to reduce the hours of opening. We also suspended the license for 4 weeks.

Thursday 10 April
At 10.00am we had a very interesting visit to Number One Market Street. This is the brand new impressive Liberata building where some of Pendle's council services have been contacted to. We started by seeing the document scanning team who process all paper work received and then send it to the PC of the relevant council officer in Councils throughout Britain – not just Pendle. Liberata have decided that all of their scanning will be done in Pendle so they are presently recruiting new jobs in this area.

New scanning equipment make document handing much faster

We were shown the training rooms, the contact centre and all the new facilities that they have. We also visited I.T., Estates, H.R. and Revenue and Benefits.

The IT department had saved this bit of kit from a time before computers

From the new building the views of Pendle Hill are great and because of the large number of windows there is plenty of light.

Great views of Pendle - this is called the big end

From one of the offices we could see a magpie starting to build its nest in a tree on Market Street.
I had to nip over to Talking Heads in Brierfield for a quick hair cut and obligatory ear bending by Manfred as my hair was starting to get a bit embarrassing. With my smart new haircut we went to The West Craven Sports Centre in Barnoldswick to promote the Healthy Eating 5 a Day campaign.

On yer bike

The idea is to mix a smoothie by peddling like mad on a stationary bike which is fixed to a blender. We were joined by the children who go each day during the holidays to do different healthy pursuits at the Centre. I let the kids go first then then got a head of steam up to make my banana, kiwi fruit and orange smoothie. Very nice. And rather healthy – another one of my five a day!
The tiles were delivered today for one of our bathrooms that is being revamped. I rang Peter the plumber to let him know that they had arrived, as had the bathroom suite, only to find out that he had done his back in.


Friday 11 April
I had an early morning business meeting in Accrington and had to get back in time to be ready to go to Euravia’s open day in Kelbrook.

Dennis Mendoras of Euravia and I welcome the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire to Pendle

On the field opposite the company, the knights of Middle England were gathered to demonstrate their jousting skills.

The impressive knights of Middle England

The day was perishingly cold at about 6 degrees and one of the things that Mayors can’t really do is dress for this.

The jousting was very realistic

Whilst a minstrel band entertained, the knights gave very impressive shows of horse riding and jousting to which I wondered how they had done their risk assessment!

We meet up with the Knights

Afterwards in Euravia’s premises, The Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Shuttleworth unveiled a plaque to commemorate the company’s new factory extension.

The Knights pose in front of the new Euravia plaque

All of the village of Kelbrook had been invited and there were plenty of young children there with their parents.

St. George gets ready to slay all dragons that were in Kelbrook

We had several photographs taken with the knights and I asked for one just with St George which we could use for St George’s Day which is coming up soon.

St George helps me with a bit of publicity for his Day

It was a great spectacle and I just wished that it had been slightly warmer as my feet took hours to thaw out.

The Euravia guys compare their gold chains to mine

Saturday 12 April
It’s still very nippy with fresh snow on the hills in the Yorkshire Dales but it doesn’t seem to bother the flock of field fare (birds) in the field or the pheasants that are still coming down for their daily snack of seeds that I put out for them.

A male pheasant in fine plumage gets stuck into the bird seed

At noon we went to take part in the Nature Day at Ball Grove just outside Colne.

Ball Grove Nature Day - its a bit cold

This was organised by the Pendle Council Park Keepers. Plenty of youngsters turned up with their parents, all keen to take part.

I join the youngsters spotting the clues

We walked through the park up to the old lake and on the way the children had to spot letters on clue cards hidden around. When they had completed all of the letters they had then to re-arrange the letters into a well know insect. The children then went in for a spot of pond dipping to see what they could find. Being a bit wimpy we decided that we were more than cold enough, so we said our farewells and walked briskly back through the fields to the car. And finally another great pic of my favourite hill;

Hang gliders taken about a month ago by my son Alex from the top of Pendle Hill

This week we tour local schools, dine with Rotary, look in at Pots of Love ceramic cafe, celebrate Hettie's 100th and race ducks

Monday 31 March

We have received our official photos back from the photographer to go into the Council Album of past Mayor's of the Borough of Pendle.

Official Photo in front of the doors leading towards the Council Chamber

If you remember when they were taken a few weeks back, we are perched on steps for this shot with Tony the photographer on ladders. We think that it was all worth it because they look really good.

I hold the original Pendle Seal

My trusty chainsaw, which I have had for about nine years, wasn’t starting up, so I went to my local supplier to see about part exchanging it. I came away with a new one with the same bar size of 18”. I need this to replenish the wood pile which is now looking pretty small, but I only need to get through to around May when I usually stop using the big wood burning stove.

I then nipped into work for a meeting with Tom and I heard that our company had been re-accredited for Investor In People status which we are very proud of and have held since 1997. In the afternoon I went along to Merc Engineering in Barrowford to sort out the Pendle Community Volunteers Award trophies which they are producing. We plan to make them similar to the Pendle Business Awards which looked really good.
Time to catch a bit of tea before going to the West Craven Together Board meeting at the Rainhall Centre.

Tuesday 1 April
April Fools day and there was an item on the Today programme about catching finches and flying them back to Denmark via terminal 5 at Heathrow. Nothing beats the spaghetti tree spoof that Panorama did many, many years ago on black and white telly.
We visited West Craven High Technology College in Barnoldswick as part of our tour of all the Secondary Schools in Pendle and were shown around by two of their students.

We all pose for a press photo

The head Arnold Kuchartschuk obviously has strong feelings for the area and was enthusiastic about plans for the future. We had a meeting with the School Council and I brought up the issue of the planning application for another supermarket in the town.

Neil takes an experimental shot in the school libary using the overhead reflector

Their views were as wide ranging as that of the local community and showed a great understanding of the issues. I explained that as I was on the committee that would consider the application I was not allowed to “fetter my discretion”, which means I can listen but not comment at this stage.

The head joins us in a group photo

I also explained to them the reason that the Rolls Royce factories are in Barnoldswick is because the fuel tanks of German bombers in the last world war were not big enough to get them to Barlick and back again to Germany. So Barlick never got bombed, although I am told that it had anti-aircraft guns and searchlights.
I had a quick sandwich then drove to Nelson Town Hall to meet Natalie Stewart and her friend, students doing journalism at Salford University who had come to interview me about Taxi issues. They did this on video and as well as the two question interview there was lots of walking and nodding shots.
From there we went to Barrowford School to present the Chess certificates.

The young chess players of Barrowford

The head John Hufferdine, who is retiring shortly showed us around before taking us into the hall for assembly. The children were joined by their parents and we presented certificates to the young people who had attended chess competition. One of the classes also gave us a short play about what the Vikings and their gods did.

We are surrounded by young Vikings at Barrowford school

The children all had their own part to play and had obviously been learning their lines for a long while. It was excellent and really uplifting, so everyone, including me, went out with a big smile on their face.
In the evening I went to Kelbrook Village Hall for the monthly West Craven Area Committee. Unusually it was a rather light agenda so we had finished before 9pm.

Wednesday 2 April
I looked out of the kitchen window whilst eating my breakfast muesli to see a flock of sheep getting stuck into eating my garden. With sheep you have got understand how they think to get them to do what you want. Over the years I have got rather expert at clearing sheep and cattle off my garden, so I was soon able to get this bunch into my field. Someone must have come and claimed them as when I looked later they had all gone.
Our next secondary school visit was to Pendle Community High School in Colne. We were met by the head and governors for a tour round the school. It was most interesting and we got to chat to lots of the students. We also went it to see domestic science (or whatever it is called now) where students were making chocolate buns which we sampled at the end of our visit – they were really good!

Tough questioning from the School Council

It is a very friendly school and we were very impressed with how staff and students interact. In September the school is moving onto the same site as Pendle Vale with a brand new futuristic building and facilities, so we are looking forward to seeing them when they move in.
At 1.30 I had a meeting in the new Pendle Economic Development offices at Elliot House to discuss the recent Pendle Business Awards Event. The event had been an undoubted success and we could only see minor items that needed improving for the next event. We have decided to do it every 2 years. This year we had sold all the tickets and could probably have sold more, so we may have to look for a new venue for the next one. The event stacked up financially too, which was great for our first effort. Most of the organising was down to Deborah and the rest of the officers who did a fantastic job.

Thursday 3 April
We had to make an early start, to get to St Phillip's School in Nelson in time for their school assembly to present the chess certificates and prizes.

The school hall is Victorian architecture at its best

St Phillips is only a relatively small Town School but obviously it is very friendly. We were welcomed by the Head and then the school sang a nice song for us before I gave out the prizes. We then had a tour of some of the classes to see what the children were doing.

Congratulations to St Philips chess players

As we were in Nelson and had not finally sorted out our planned visits to all of Pendle’s parks we called into the offices at Marsden Park. We decided to go around all of them on 17 and 18 April and plant wild roses at Barrowford and a silver birch tree at Kelbrook.
In the evening I went to the Rotary Club of Colne 72nd Annual Charter Dinner at Colne Golf Club.

Elaine Hardy, Ass District Govenor, Rev. Hartley, Colne's President and I meet before dinner

I was met by the president Rev. Michael Hartley who informed me that he was leaving in June to move to a new area. I am always surprised how many people that I know when I go to these sorts of events and tonight was no exception. The chief executive of Pendle Council, Steven Barnes was there with Roy Beale who his boss when he first started work in the finance department. I reminded Roy that he had a street named after him and if Steven played his cards right who knows even he may get one named after him! After the meal there was a very entertaining talk by Geoff Crambie who is undoubtedly the most knowledgeable person living, regarding the history of Colne.

Group shot including after dinner speaker Geoff Crambie - second from left

He showed us a picture of 100 great Colners, and then went on to tell us very interesting details about most of them.

Friday 4 April
Continuing our visits to all of Pendle’s secondary school we went along to Park High School in Colne. We were shown around the school by the head boy before meeting with students from all of the year groups for an informal discussion.

Year groups from Park High give me a grilling

I told them why the mill towns were built in East Lancashire (because cotton yarn weaving preferred damp conditions) and they asked us about what the Mayor did. We then went in to the sports hall to join with the school in their assembly.

Park's chess winners including Joshua Wood who won the senior cup

The school band played us in and then we went on to present the Walton Tournament Chess awards and certificates.

Awards in the school assembly

After I had given out the awards including the senior chess cup to Joshua Wood, I said a few words about the civic chain and the Birtwhistle Diamond that the Mayoress was wearing.

The girls who had won hairdressing prizes show my hair up

I told the students that whilst we were wearing the chain and the diamond we always had to have our attendant Neil with us, who also acts as our bodyguard!

Saturday 5 April
We visited the Rainhall Centre in Barnoldswick for the Arts & Crafts Fair and started by chatting to all of the interesting stalls.

I have my size 10s massaged ready for a bit more walking

I then had a foot massage by Phyll Harrison for a photo shot, which gave everyone a great deal of amusement. We then had a go at silk painting but the kids who were also doing it, were much better than me. I went on to sign a ceramic plate ready to be fired at the new Ceramic Café - Pots of Love.

Congratulating Pots of Love Ceramic Cafe on their new venture

Afterwards I said a few words of welcome Lindsay and Shelley the proprietors and to everyone in the café. It is a great idea and deserves to succeed.

I sign a commemorative plate ready for firing in the kiln

From there we drove over to Nelson to meet Hettie Cunliffe who was 100 today, together with all of her friends and relatives. I read out the card from the Queen followed by one from the Department of Work and Pensions!

Happy 100th Hettie!

We then presented our own card and flowers. Hettie had received loads of cards but was not sure what the fuss was all about. She said that if there was another do like this planned for next year she would probably go off for the day!

Air and Sea Cadets get the duck racecourse ready

In the evening we went to Nelson Old Band Club for a Duck Race. This had been organised by the British Legion who they had invited all the sea and air cadets from around the area. The idea is that 6 different coloured ducks move down a grid by big dice being thrown. You then put a bet on to support your chosen duck colour.

Ducks - are you ready?

I chose blue all night which was always leading until being pipped at the post. The cadets did the dice throwing and moving the ducks and everyone got into supporting their own duck.

They're off with my blue duck near the back

It was a great night which raised £700 for the Mayoress’s Charities. And finally, here's another great picture of proud Pendle taken by Neil.