Tavistock, England, United Kingdom
An honour to be Mayor of the lovely town of Tavistock in Devon. This is a one year post with a great deal of work to be done from civic engagements to chairing the council meetings, whilst also dealing with issues as they arise. The town was delighted to be the national launch for the Man Engine event recognising the Tinth (10th) anniversary of the inscription of the UNESCO World Heritage Mining Site for Cornwall and West Devon. The awe inspiring 12m "miner" was a sight to beholden and made the national, local news channels and most of the national media. Excellent free publicity that the town could never have paid for. Within the coming year Tavistock Town Council are looking to forge ahead with our plans for our Guildhall project, working with Tavistock Heritage, Heritage Lottery Funding and other major stake holders to bring back into public use this wonderful old magistrates court building. My mayoral charity is Tavistock Dementia Action Alliance, a group that I have been a part of since its start four years ago. Tavistock became one of the first Dementia Friendly towns in the country a couple of years ago. Sadly many more people are developing dementia and it behoves us all to be able to know how to treat someone with dementia. Be it a loved one, friend or a stranger who we happen to come into contact with everyone deserves to be treated with respect.
I am currently the Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee for West Devon Borough Council. I am also a member of the Income Generation Working Group, I chair the Locality Model Working Group. I am also very involved with Affordable Housing and housing/benefit issues in general. In my ward work I am passionate about speaking out for the people with little or no voice i.e young people and the elderly residents of Tavistock. Currently there are many changes facing the town of Tavistock with services being reviewed/potentially withdrawn by other stakeholders due to their budget constraints. I try to offer the public some other ways of thinking which may well offer a better sustainable service for the future of our town.