Annual Report of the Lord Mayor 2004/05

	Lord Mayor's Annual Report 2004 - 2005

1.1	First of all I would like to thank my colleagues on the Council for giving me the opportunity of serving our City as its Lord Mayor for the past year, or at least the past 11 months! It has been an exciting and exhilarating time and not to say eventful when, within a month of taking Office, part of the ceiling in the main reception rooms came down and we were displaced from the Lord Mayor's Parlour for almost two months!

1.2	My theme for the year was to promote and encourage the diversity of Sheffield's communities and I believe that I have done this with visits to and receptions for as many different communities as I could. The genuine hospitality that the Lady Mayoress and I received has been wonderful and the joy and excitement of people, both young and old on seeing and feeling the Chains of Office is great. However, one of the receptions I gave was for people who are involved in the linking movement with our Twin Towns and it was clear that it is felt that the City Council are not involved actively enough with our Twin Towns. I believe strongly that the Civic Office Holder, at least, should be more actively involved, including visiting out nearest Twin Towns. This shortcoming has already been highlighted by, at the very least, my two immediate predecessors.

1.3	We have also welcomed a considerable number of visitors, local, national and international, to our City and the feedback from them was always very positive. The largest group of visitors at any one time was the 3,000 fire fighters and their families from all over the world who came to Sheffield in August 2004 for the 8th World Fire-Fighter Games. 165 events over 8 days! They were so enthusiastic about our fabulous sporting facilities and said that it had been the best organised with the best facilities of all kinds since the Games was instigated. Considering that there were top class athletes from Australia, Canada, the USA and most European countries this was praise indeed. They were also full of admiration for the warmth and generosity of the people of Sheffield - it is undoubtedly a very friendly City and these were certainly the friendly Games!

1.4	My Charities for the year were the Cavendish Centre for Cancer Care and the Prostate Cancer Charity and we managed to raise just on £21,000, which I intend to split two ways; two thirds to the Cavendish Centre and one third to Prostate Cancer. This has been warmly received by them and will enable them to continue to carry on the very important work that they do. We would like to thank all those who helped us raise such a wonderful sum, in particular the many local organisations who supported the Lady Mayoress' occasionally rather manic tea and coffee sessions; our especial thanks go to Councillors Peter Price, Ray Satur, Anne Smith and Michael Waters, together with Westfield Health for their very generous support.

1.5	The role of the Lord Mayor is, perhaps, better regarded outside the Town Hall than within. The esteem and respect in which the Office is held in by both the public and business people in Sheffield and beyond is something on which we need to build. For instance, I do believe that the recommendations from the report on the Review of the Lord Mayor's Service to the Management of Resources Scrutiny Board in February 2005 should be implemented as soon as possible.

1.6	I also think that the Office of Lord Mayor could and should be used more to promote the City, in particular, to the business sector by hosting business lunches or events etc. I did this on two occasions during my year and they were very well received. We do need to spend just a little more on catering and other services to ensure that we are seen to be as competitive as our neighbouring towns and cities who do use their Civic Offices in a much more proactive way. There is an old saying "one has to speculate to accumulate" and a few extra pounds spent within the Lord Mayor's Service would, I am convinced, lead to a hundredfold return at the very least.

1.7	There are a number of things mentioned in the Report of the last Lord Mayor (Councillor Diane Leek) that still remain uncompleted i.e. the Civic Robes do need cleaning and repairing, the Parlour needs a complete refurbishment in the same way as the main reception rooms, plus consideration should be given to looking again at the level of support to the Lord Mayor whilst on official duties outside the Town Hall.

1.8	We should also take the opportunity to review the mementoes that the Lord Mayor gives to the visitors he/she entertains. At present the Lord Mayor in general only gives out a small cardboard bookmark and a small metal 'Sheffield' pin, whereas when I first became a Member of the Council the 'standard' gift was a small leather-bound message/notepad or a leather bookmark or something similar. When we have more senior visitors we struggle to find suitable gifts and then only produce something if we have received a gift from them. I am not saying that we should spend a large amount of money on civic gifts but we could do a lot more than we do and it can only be seen as a positive promotion or marketing activity.

1.9	One of the things that I am most pleased to have achieved is, despite the misgivings of some Officers, the permanent display of the City's Silver Collection on the ground floor of the Town Hall. This took an inordinate length of time to get implemented in spite of its being approved last August. My thanks go to Kevan Hall and Kevin Clarkson and, in particular, to Dorian Church of the Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust for making this happen. We now need to look at the very shabby display case in the front porch, which is sorely in need of refurbishment.

1.10	As past Lord Mayors have said, chairing the full Council Meeting each month is an experience all by itself and I would like to thank my colleagues for their co-operation and support despite those occasions when I had to resort to using the 'rule book'.

1.11	I would particularly like to thank publicly all the staff who work behind the scenes; the Lord Mayor's personal office staff, the Mace Bearer, Chauffeurs, cleaners, front desk staff, security and so on for making sure that we were where we should have been; were able to do the job required of us, and for making our year so memorable.

1.12	It was a great year and a very great honour and privilege to represent our City and I hope that I justified your confidence in me.

1.13	In conclusion I would ask that the Council Meeting notes this report and gives consideration to the issues raised within it.

	Councillor Michael Pye
	Lord Mayor of Sheffield
	2004 - 2005

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