Monday 18 February
In the evening Pendle Youth Council held their hustings and elections for the National Youth Parliament at Nelson Town Hall.
In the evening Pendle Youth Council held their hustings and elections for the National Youth Parliament at Nelson Town Hall.
The chairman gives the gavel a good bang
I gave a welcoming speech and also announced the successful candidate at the end of the evening. Roger Inglis of the Lancashire County Council Youth Service explained what the job involved and how the voting worked before handing over to the candidates. Each candidate gave a two minutes speech and then answered two questions from the audience. The quality and content of their speeches was excellent and with young people like this democracy will be safe in their hands.
The excellent young speakers from Pendle Youth Council
Here’s what I said;
"This is a great initiative to get Pendle's youth involved in politics.
"Most MP's recognise the National Youth Parliament and the aim is to have every constituency in the United Kingdom represented by a Young Member of Parliament (YMP).
"Local school's and youth projects are involved in the scheme and the elections are chaired by a young person so it is really a case of for the young, by the young.
"Pendle Youth Council is open to all young people in the borough and I urge everyone to get involved."
High five for the winner Shane Dickinson
Tuesday 19 February
In the morning I went in to meet with Stephen Smith at Pendle Community Network to go through plans for our Pendle Community Volunteer Awards. We are to hold the event on May 7th in the Council Chamber and we will have 11 awards to give out.
In the afternoon we went to meet with Les Nuttall Managing Director of Merc Engineering to see the Pendle Business Awards trophies in production.
I try to blow at the Pendle Business Awards Trophy at the request of the press photographer
They looked great and are based on the Pendle logo with engraved company names for the winners.
You press this button here and the trophies come out the other end
The prestigious first Pendle Business Awards event is at The Fence Gate is next Wednesday.
Wednesday 20 February
In the evening I went along in my dinner jacket to Towneley Hall in Burnley for the 81st Nelson, Brierfield & Reedley Charter Dinner.
Rotary Club officials welcome me to their 81st dinner
The hall is an absolutely splendid venue for this type of function and the dinner was held in one of the hall with impressive large pictures on the walls. I never expect to know anyone at these types of do’s but it always to be wrong and this time I met Colin Sanderson who used to have the Mayoress has his secretary many years ago.
Thursday 21 February
I had promised to visit the Brierfield Cyber Café after they had called to see us at the Town Hall a few weeks ago. So we went along in the afternoon to meet with the young people that use it and the voluntary group that manage it.
I show them the entry on the blog when they came to the Town Hall
The Cyber café is right in the centre of Brierfield and has 2 Internet rooms where anyone can drop in and use the Internet for free. They also have a music room for recording tracks and making cd’s and videos. And there is a games room set up where the young people can compete against themselves. They are open every day and over 70,000 people have used the facility since it started in 2004.
The town mayor of Brierfield, committee and young people at the Cyber Cafe
One of the groups that use the Cyber Café are also organising a charity dinner for the Mayoress’s Charities in a couple of weeks where they aim to raise £1000!
Friday 22 February
I had a meeting at Economic Development to go through the arrangements for the first Pendle Business Awards. I was told that we had sold almost all of the 250 tickets for the event, which is at the Fence Gate. It promises to be a great evening with over 30 companies being represented and we have been greatly impressed with quality and enthusiasm of our excellent local companies. We plan to continue the event every two years.
In the evening we went to The Pendle Community Credit Union, which was held at the SJS Social Club on Vaughan Street in Nelson. Pendle Community Credit Union is a non-profit making self help financial co-operative run by experienced volunteers, serving its members over the whole of the Pendle Borough, with savings and loans facilities. It started from Nelson Community Credit Union, which was launched on April 23rd 1982. They now have well over 2,500 members and collective savings of over £1 million and lend out over £10 million! Presently PCCU can boast of having over 70 volunteers.
The volunteers on the committee at Pendle Community Credit Union
I told them that; ''You should be very proud of our Credit Union for it represents people helping people in their own community to build a better future together”.
We met many interesting people including the founding member Mr Lou Gildea. We were really well looked after by the committee members and the potato pie was excellent!
Saturday 23 February
The Hyndburn Mayors Charity Ball was held at Accrington Town Hall. We joined by lots of Mayors from all over Lancashire.
Press call at the Hyndburn Charity Ball
The dinner was Vegetable soup, followed by roast beef and vegetables, and then strawberry cheesecake followed by cheese and biscuits.
Peter the Mayor of Burnley and I show that the two boroughs are united
We get close to shirley Bassey's "younger sister" from West Haughton
One of the fund raising events was to throw 4 6’s with dice to win a Mini. Now the odds against that must be very slim. But they had large dice and the Mayoress threw 3 6’s so we nearly won it. When we were leaving at the end of the night, we met a young woman had actually thrown 4’6s and won the car!
Sunday 24 February
I couldn’t have a lazy Sunday as I had to get to Letcliffe Park in Barlick for the 7 mile Letcliffe Trek led by Robert and some of the other young park keepers.
We all get ready to set off from Lettcliffe Park
The route took us from Barlick over Occupation Road (a moor land track) to Gisburn Track (the old road) past Blacko Tower then up to the summit of Weets Hill and back to the park.
Walkers group around the trig point on top of Weets Hill
Starting at 10.00 with a press picture we were back by around 1pm. The day started off rather wet but a bit of blue sky peaked through as we were getting thee end of the walk.
We had around 25 people doing the walk and enjoying good company and what would have been great views if the weather had been better. A good day enjoyed by everyone.
