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Annual Report of the Lord Mayor 2006/2007
Lord Mayor’s Annual Report 2006/2007
Councillor Jackie Drayton
I intend to firstly, introduce my report by reflecting back on the speech I gave when I was installed as Lord Mayor in May 2006, then go on to share some of my many experiences during my
Mayoral year and lastly to end with thanks and some thoughts for the future.
How did I start my speech….here it is….and I’m still pinching myself!
‘Well, what can I say………… I can’t believe it and I have to keep pinching myself
Me……… Jackie Drayton ….. Jackie Cooper that was, a young girl off a council estate - Lord Mayor of Sheffield!
I came up to Sheffield in 1979 and I must admit I wondered what I’d come to ... even though Coventry is only an hour and a half away it seemed so much colder in fact I remember that year it snowed on my son’s birthday ..on April 28th! The kids thought it was great we took bin bags up to the park at the end of our road and slid down the slope.
But while the weather might have been cold - the warmth of the people was amazing and I learnt first hand about the famous Sheffield friendliness – not only from new friends but also from neighbours, people in the community and people on the bus, in shops – there was always a kind word and a smile – it was brilliant then and it still is now - maybe the faces are different but feeling is the same.
I came to realise that although there were differences between Sheffield and Coventry, Coventry is flat Sheffield is hilly, Coventry is in the Midlands and Sheffield is in the North, that there were also similarities, Coventry and Sheffield both had a manufacturing base in decline Coventry cars and Sheffield steel, where the had once been massive car plants and steel works there emerged shopping malls, unemployment, poverty and a drive to make things better.
My grandfathers were both, economic migrants, one worked in the slate mines in North Wales, where he and his father had to buy their own candles to work in seams 3 and 4 feet deep, he travelled to Coventry to get work in Car Manufacturing, the other a farm labourer, who when he had no work applied to the Parish for ‘Poor Law Relief’, was refuse outdoor relief but was told that he, his wife and children should go into the workhouse, where they would be separated and given work, he declined and travelled to the City to get work in engineering. Today, in Sheffield, we have other sorts of migrants, some economic, like my grandfathers, other fleeing from fear, repression, hunger and war. Those people often face discrimination and prejudice, that prejudice is often based on the fear of the unknown. I feel certain that the more that we get to know each other as people and start to understand our ‘differences’ the harder it is to see each other as a threat or an enemy. I’m fortunate to have lived in Burngreave since I arrived in Sheffield and I have had the wonderful opportunity of meeting and making friends with people from many different backgrounds and cultures. These people have enriched my life and the life of our great City. I have, and always will value their friendship and support.
My background and experiences have led me to become a feminist and a socialist and these beliefs have shaped who I am. I have been inspired by many women – famous women from the past and those women ‘hidden from history’ who have made such a significant contribution to the life of this City and our Nation but also by women I have known like my mum, my Nan, my grandma, aunts cousins daughters daughters-in-laws, other relatives colleagues, comrades and friends.
During my year I met people from backgrounds very different to my own – The Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire and his wife, David & Sue Moody, Past and Present Master & Mistress Cutler, Tim & Pam reed and Allan & Ellen Reid, High Sheriff Past & Present, John & Penny Biggin and Jonathan & Susan Hunt they have all been very kind and welcoming to whatever the occasion.
‘Thinking about the year ahead I have decided to develop three themes.
The first of these is Celebration – and in particular celebrating the lives and contribution of women to our City. This year I am proposing to instigate the Lord Mayors Women of Inspiration Awards. The categories will be
Woman in Business
Woman in Sporting Activity
Woman in the Community
Woman in the Arts & Culture
Woman at Home
Woman in Education and
Outstanding Woman of the Year
I propose to ask the people of Sheffield to nominate women for the awards. The awards will be presented at a Charity dinner. ‘
Following my installation the Editor of the Sheffield Telegraph, David Todd, got in touch with me and proposed that the newspaper to jointly sponsor the Awards and help organise and advertise them. I agreed and we set up a working group to oversee the event and it happened! On the evening of March the 7th 2007, over 250 women joined me in celebrating the achievements of those Women of Inspiration at the City Hall. It was made possible by hard work by a number of people including David Todd, Graham Walker and Moira Kelly, the Sheffield Telegraph, Paul Green, S.I.V., Dominic Stokes, The City Hall, Jocelyn Hoyte Smith, Angela Galvin, The Theatres Trust, and Anne Flounders, the Lord Mayors Office. I have to thank too all the Sponsors of the event and Awards for believing in the event and giving so generously. I do hope that this becomes and annual event as there are many more women whose achievements we could celebrate.
‘I also propose to hold a conference in the Town Hall, on International Women’s Day 8th March 2007, where we will organise workshops to bring together successful women and young women from local schools and colleges, to talk, inspire and encourage. To help and support women in recognising that they can attain all they can if only they persevere.’
Working with Kate Flannery, from the Equalities Team, Dawn Walton, C&YP’s Directorate and Zoe Tingle, the Lord Mayors Office, we hosted an ‘If I Can, You Can’ day in the Town Hall for Year 6(last year of primary school) girl pupils from schools around the City. It was their chance to meet and ask questions of various successful women from different backgrounds including women from business, community, education and commerce backgrounds. The girls found it exciting the women found it exhausting but all thought it very worthwhile. I wanted to organise a similar event for year 6 boy pupils to meet inspirational men but unfortunately ran out of time.
I think events like these are extremely important, not only to challenge stereotypes and perceptions but also to bring young people into the Town Hall.
In celebrating the lives and achievements of women I feel that we need to recognise the contributions made by men. We need men to have vision and bravery, to give up a little of their power and to help break down barriers, to go forward arm in arm – because together we can make a better, stronger more equal society.
With the Regender Project Coordinator, Zoe Smith, from Oxfam and Kate Flannery from the Equalities Team I hosted a conference on ‘Gender and Regeneration’, looking at the ‘Gender Duty’ and it’s impact on the work of the Authority and other agencies and organisations and also how gender can influence where regeneration money is spent and on what. It was a thought provoking conference that was well attended and people went away talking about ways in which they could change their practice and develop services.
‘My second theme is Civic Pride and Citizenship
Pride in Sheffield led the City leaders to build this wonderful Town Hall to reflect the standing of the City and its Citizens. But Civic Pride is not only housed within the Town Hall but also out within our Neighbourhoods. I live in and represent what some would call ‘a deprived area’
I worry because this label of ‘deprived’ can define an area, I know from all my connections within my community that this isn’t true. The area might be deprived of resources, of employment, of services but the people are not deprived. They have skills, experience and potential – which must be extended. We mustn’t stereotype people and communities, we need to look beyond what people think and see and tap that wealth of talent often hidden in our neighbourhoods.
Let’s look beyond what we see and work in partnership with each other. Maybe people in communities don’t know what takes place in the Town Hall; maybe feel cut off from decision-making and feel disenfranchised. Maybe the Town hall/the Council feels misunderstood and not valued. I hope to help break down some of these barriers and to raise Civic pride to what it was to combat inertia and to get people involved. I know that there are a lot of people out in our City engaged in all sorts of voluntary and community work, beaver-ing away, making a difference and working to improve their communities, we need to engage them in the democratic process and the Civic Life of the City.
I have set myself a challenge to invite as many people as possible from Sheffield, young and old and from all walks of life, to visit me in the Parlour and to tour the Town Hall.
I am asking schools and colleges to invite me to meet their students and schools councils to raise the profile of the office of the Lord Mayor and raise this notion of civic pride.
The Victorian era had many problems but Civic pride wasn’t one of them!’
I set the scene for my year of promoting Civic Pride by changing the Civic Sunday to a Saturday, calling it a Civic Celebration and leading a Parade of all the dignitaries from the Town Hall down Fargate to the Cathedral, with a brass band and police horses leading the way – to the astonishment and pleasure of all the shoppers. The celebration included songs from the Folk Chorale, one of which was especially written for the event and attempted to name all the areas in Sheffield! Primary school children from Owler Brook School sang, ‘The Ink is Black, the Page is White’, in front of their parents, most of whom had never been inside the Cathedral before. We had readings from the Koran and the Bible and the wonderful suffragette hymn ‘March of the Women’. Many thanks to Linda Chambers, the Lord Mayors Office and the Staff at the Cathedral for their hard work in making sure the event ran so smoothly.
I invited many people into the Parlour for tea with the Lord Mayor, including from TARA’s, Guilds, schools, colleges, businesses, charities, community, cultural and youth groups, Celebrities, Police, Fire and Rescue, PCT and City Council staff. The Parlour was also used by me to present certificates and prizes, launch books and safety games and to host fund raising events.
One of the most pleasurable duties I had as Lord Mayor was to visit people on their very special birthday or wedding anniversary It was lovely to hear about times gone by and I thought it might be nice for the people I’d met to meet each other so, I hosted a very special tea party for ‘Centenarians’. Eleven people with their families, friends and carers came to tea, eight who were 100 years old, two 102 years old and one, who is the oldest person in South Yorkshire, at 107 years old! Everyone had a wonderful time, many thanks to Tracey Lyne, in the City Council Central Transport department who made it possible by arranging transport for everyone.
I also held Civic Receptions for a variety of people, communities and organisations to celebrate achievements and cultural occasions, to thank and inspire others and promote the City, Projects, Charities and Business and Commerce.
The year 2007 was the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and the first meeting of the Chamber took place in the old Town Hall, it seemed appropriate to start of a series of celebratory events by re-enacting that meeting in the Lord Mayors Parlour. I put on the old red robes and members of the Chamber wore Victorian dress and the Chair of the Chamber read out the minutes of that first meeting. As it was also the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Sheffield Football Club, the Chief executive and Chair were also present, wearing Victorian football kit – complete with long shorts and whiskers!
On 20th March 2007, ‘The Loving Cup of England’ came to Sheffield as part of a nationwide tour to celebrate St Georges Day. The idea was for the was for the Loving Cup to bring together all those who live in England, from all walks of life and every nationality who live in peace and harmony. As Lord Mayor I welcomed the Cup to Sheffield and invited representatives from different communities across the City to come and drink from the Cup with me.
I performed many duties linked to the Armed Forces. From attending receptions at Manor Top 38th Signal Regiment, Bailey barracks, 106 Air Support Squadron, Somme barracks Sheffield University officer Training Corps, Encliffe Hall, York and Lancaster Regiment to visiting the Royal Horse Artillery, Chestnut Troop at Larkhill and wishing them well during their tour in Iraq. I also received Officers and soldiers of the Yorkshire Regiment when they handed in a formal letter requesting the transfer of the Freedom of the City from the Duke of Wellington Regiment (now disbanded) to the newly formed Yorkshire Regiment.
One of the most memorable was on Thursday 2nd November 2006 when I had the honour of presenting medals awarded by the Government to Sheffield Veterans of the Suez Canal Zone 1951-54. The Lord Mayors Office came up trumps again by not only organising two events in one day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, both with refreshments, but also sending everyone a group photo of the event, as a memento. Everything ran smoothly and we had many letters of thanks from those who received their medals saying how much they had enjoyed the event.
‘My third theme is Linking the City, from the City Centre to the Suburbs to Regional, National, European and International Connections.
Sheffield has a long and honoured history of extending its hand in friendship and support to other countries. Many ‘Sheffielders’ joined up to fight in the First World War, many in the City Battalion known as the ‘Pals’ Battalion because friends joined up together, they went over to France and on 1st July 1916 at 7.30 at the Battle of the Somme over 50.000 young man were killed. Sheffield City Council and some prominent Sheffield business people were determined not to forget them and so the City acquired a plot of land, part of the trench battlefield and made it into a Memorial Park with a pavilion in remembrance of those who died in that terrible War, the Yorks and Lancaster Regiment also erected a Monument to the men of the Sheffield City Battalion on the Serre Road. This year is the 90th anniversary of the battle of the Somme and the City Council working with the Yorks & Lancaster Regiment has commissioned repair work to be done on the Monument, and signs to be put up in the Memorial Park and at the Monument to explain to visitors the role that the Sheffield Battalion played in the Battle. This year on the 1st July there is to be a service of rededication of the Monument and I am very proud to be attending to represent the people of Sheffield.
At this point I would like to pay tribute one person who more or less single handedly raise nearly £30,000 towards the costs of the project. Without his tireless dedication, commitment and sheer hard work I’m not sure if this massive project would have been completed. I would like to record my personal thanks and those of the City to Col Geoffrey Norton.
As everyone will know at the end of the First World War the area around the Somme was completely flattened, In the late 1920’s Sheffield made links with the town of Bapaume and
Sheffield gave money to the town council to build 12 houses to be rented to men who had been wounded in the War or widows whose husbands had died in the War. Also a prominent manufacturer, George Lawrence, gave money to build a nursery school in the town. There’s a sign on the sign on the school that says Sheffield - Bapaume, Always United - Always Friends with two hands clasping.’
The Sheffield delegation did go to Serre and Bapaume. It included five past Lord Mayors of the City, the Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire, the Bishop of Sheffield, and officers and men of the York and Lancaster Regiment. We were joined at the Monument by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Serre and Bishop Jack lead a service to rededicated the Monument to the men of Sheffield and South Yorkshire who fell in the Battle of the Somme, wreathes were then laid. We then went to the Memorial Park were again Bishop Jack remember those who died, laid wreathes and reflected. We went next to Bapaume where we were met by the Mayor, members of the Town Council and members of the French Government. We visited the school saw photographs and mementos of the ‘Sheffield Pilgrimage’ in 1929 and then were treated to a wonderful meal. Here speeches were given and gifts exchanged. The Mayor referred to Sheffield as Bapaume’s ‘Godmother’, as is on the inscription on the plinth of the vase that the town gave to us in 1929. Before leaving we also laid a wreathe on the town’s Monument commemorating those who perishes in the First World War. I think everyone would agree that it was a very moving and humbling occasion.
‘I feel that it is very fitting, and in the true tradition of Sheffield that this year one of the projects that my Lord Mayors Charity Appeal will support is the rebuilding of a Regional Residential Girls College in Bagh, in the Earthquake area of Azad Kashmir (Pakistan). Over 19,000 school aged children died in the earthquake. The original college was a three-storey building and was completely destroyed, killing over 280 staff and students. The idea is to rebuild the school on the same site but to make it single storey and to re name it the Sheffield Girls College. Each classroom will cost approximately £1,597 to build and it will possible for groups or individuals to sponsor a classroom and have your own name plaque on it.
Another inscription on the School in Bapaume reads, ‘This school was built with the generosity of Mr & Mrs Lawrence and the inhabitants of Sheffield’. I hope that there will be a similar plaque on a College in a land farther away than France, but never-the-less as needy saying, ‘that this Girls College was built with the generosity of the inhabitants of Sheffield’.
I have to report that I did go to Kashmir, for a week, to lay the foundation stone for the Sheffield Girls College, Bagh. I also took 100 pairs of scissors donated to me by Richardsons of Sheffield, to give to the Women’s Sewing Workshops. Five workshops were set up by the same charity that is rebuilding the girls College, The Kashmir Educational Trust, the idea behind the workshops were to give a skill to those women who lost all breadwinners in the earthquake, to enable them to earn some money by making and selling clothes in their villages. We visited four of the five workshops set high in the Kashmir Mountains. Women walk for miles from local villages to attend the sessions. I gave out 20 pairs of scissors to each workshop and they were thrilled. I also presented certificates to men and women who had completed English and Computer courses organised and taught by English Teachers volunteers from Sheffield who had gone out to Bagh in their summer break. Signs of the earthquake are still evident, with some people still living in tents. I was told that over 500 people had been killed in the area already this year due to landslides which happen because the land is still unstable due to the aftermath of the earthquake. We were given a tremendous welcome wherever we went and people want to work in partnership with us to help improve the situation. Although my year as Lord Mayor is over I am still continuing to support this worthwhile cause and I know that one day we will go over to celebrate with the people there the opening of the new Sheffield Girls College.
‘The other links we have are through our ‘twin’ cities, I feel it’s so important to use these existing links and friendship networks to promote the City and its businesses, research and educational, cultural and sporting facilities in any way possible. I know that this is already happening. Many
Sheffield businesses, the two Universities, and the Chamber are working with colleagues from aboard. At a conference I went to the other day one company said they were at present, doing business with 67 countries. I plan to build on this excellent work and promote the City and this vital work whenever I can, we must continue the economic growth in the City, bringing more visitors here as well as selling our goods and services all over the world. To this end I have accepted an invitation from the Lord Mayor of our sister City, Anshan, to attend an exhibition and tourism conference.’
I did attend the Tourism exhibition and conference in Anshan, with two officers from Sheffield Dr Ann Gosse, Director of Culture and Sport, and Phil Roberts, Sheffield First for Investment, (now Creative Sheffield). We had a packed schedule over 7 days, starting at 7am and finishing at 9pm at night. We visited businesses, tourist sites, colleges and Universities, appeared on TV and in the newspapers, met both the Lord Mayor and the Party Secretary. (The only delegation to do so – there were delegations from around the world at the event). We made some very useful contacts in business, sport, education and culture, these have born fruit as we have had reciprocal visits from four Anshan delegations since our return. We were welcomed where ever we went, and people were genuinely please that we had attended the event especially those in power, they consistently stated that Sheffield had been ‘a friend’ to Anshan for a long time (26 years ) and they valued that. Special thanks to, Anne and Phil, who worked very hard during the trip and since on developing those links we made, Zoe North, the Lord Mayors office, for all the help in sorting out all the red tape, organising the trip and the subsequent visits from Anshan delegations.
My Charities
As well as the Sheffield Girls College in Bagh, my other Charities are the Parson Cross Domestic Violence/Abuse project for children and The Cavendish Cancer Centre.
Here I have to thank my wonderful Fundraising Team and all those who have work so hard to raise money for my Charities, at the beginning of the year I had a target of £50k I’m delighted to say that at present the total stands at approximately £41k with a little more money to come in. Extra special thanks to my Dad for ‘administering’ the money that the Lord Mayor gets from the fountains in towns, Margaret and John Little, Josie Stubbs and family, Chris Roscoe, Gerry Bates, Geraldine Roberts, ‘Special K’ Karen Wilson, and all her ‘crew’, Judith, Sue, John, Margaret, Alex and all the other dancers and musicians roped in to help out. Scott Barton, William Percival, Green City Action Staff and Volunteers, Hillsborough College Students and Staff, Ray and Jackie Satur, Pat Midgely John Robson and Julie Dore, Mike Waters and Anne Smith, John Turner and all those in Legal and Governance, Pete Mckee, The Master and Mistress Cutler Alan and Ellen Reid, last but not least Julie Wilson, the Lord Mayor’s Mace Bearer.
Many thanks too for all those people who gave so generously – every penny makes a real difference to the lives of the people affected by each one of my charities.
I also have to give my thanks for all the support I have had throughout my year as Lord Mayor. All those in the Lord Mayors ‘Team’ Anne, who became a friend, Zoe, Zoe, Linda, absolutely tremendous efficient, helpful and they put up with me! Julie, the most elegant, knowledgeable Mace Bearer in Britain, Russell Webster, Chauffeur, not only a safe and brilliant driver but courteous and kind a ‘real gentleman’. and the other chauffeurs Sam Mayo and Bill Blakeman nothing was too much trouble for them, also the Legal and Governance Team who help me through Full Council, including Mick Ogle, Liz Bashforth and Bob Kerslake and of course my Chaplain Dr John Vincent I would also like to thanks my wonderful husband and Consort, Ian and my family, for all the help and support they have given me over the year – I couldn’t have done it without you all.
I ended my installation speech by saying ….
‘Finally I promise that I will do the best I can at all times to represent and promote this wonderful City of Sheffield, I feel so proud and privileged to be given such an honour. ‘
I hope I managed to do that it was a wonderful year – many thanks.
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