I’ve had a busy time since last I wrote a column. Most recently it was my honour and my privilege to represent Frome at the Memorial Service on Remembrance Sunday. It’s such a moving ceremony and was really well attended by people of all ages. It’s so reassuring that families recognise the value of sharing that message of peace and remembrance across the generations. Very early the following morning I was at Westbury Station to deliver a wreath on behalf of Frome onto the Poppy Express to Paddington Station.
Earlier in the week I was delighted to be invited to The Gateway Club awards night at Trinity Hall. The club supports adults with learning difficulties via social activities. We were entertained by Frome Ukelele Club, with fabulous upbeat sounds that really got the audience bouncing. The first award of the evening was The Joan Miller Achievement Award, which I was pleased to present to Colin Heath in recognition of his resilience through a challenging day at A&E, before I went on to present a huge range of awards and certificates ranging from the longest paper aeroplane flight to the highest tower of pebbles on the beach!
I was amazed at the number and quality of entries for my Christmas Card competition. I was glad that my wife Anne was helping as we sorted through hundreds of beautiful designs on the theme of Winter Wildlife. Eventually we managed to select a winner, a beautiful collage by Frida Scott of St John’s First School that captures the spirit of Christmas and Wintertime. The two runners up were Eliana Hague and Lillian Tucker from Oakfield Academy. The three prize-winning designs are central to a massive display of all the entries in the corridor of the Town Hall.
The last meeting of Frome Town Council included a couple of really inspiring topics. We’ve been working for some weeks on a response to Somerset Council’s financial emergency, and we’ve now published the first draft of a Prospectus for Frome that outlines some of the ways that a devolution deal could benefit Frome. It’s a long-term project but there’s so much that could work better if we had more local control over priorities. We also looked at the outcome of an exercise called Building a Picture of Frome, where we’ve gathered lots of information about the town, with inputs from pop-up consultations with people around the town, an online survey and gatherings of multiple Community Groups, plus some detailed demographic data from the census, via our colleagues at Locality. That’s really helpful information for us as ouncillors, and we’re also making it available to support other people when making funding applications or looking for guidance on what really matters to the people of Frome.
By the time you read this, it’s nearly time to Light The Night! On Friday November 22nd I’ll be up on the balcony of The George Hotel watching the lantern parade and enjoying the entertainment, before I ask Christmas card designer Frida Scott to help turn on the Christmas lights.
