Brenda Burgess, Mayor of Crawley

met a very interesting and fascinating man on Saturday. Yes ladies there are some around.

His name was Javed Siddiq. He is the Resident Editor of the Daily Nawa-E-Waqt , which I believe is one of the largest newspapers in Pakistan. He relayed stories and opinions on world events from the Pakistan viewpoint, which I found extremely enlightening. I shall try and access the online version of his newspaper for  information concerning that part of the world.   www.nawaiwaqt.com.pk  or   www.nation.com.pk. 

I also had the honour of attending an Award Ceremony for students from the local Community College. This was a celebration of achievement in Art, Design Technology, Drama, English, Food studies, Child Development, Humanities, Learning Support, Health and Social Care, Science, Law, Maths - the list goes on and on .

What an amazing school and what amazing students.

The last academic year saw many schools in Crawley gaining greatly improved results. This particular school known as Thomas Bennett Community College, is one of those schools. In fact, the school is going from strength to strength . At the Ceremony, nearly two hundred students from the College, received awards for their achievements, with Laura Mayne gaining the Top Student Award. Miss Mayne has gained entry to Cambridge in order to read English. Apparently, she gave an exceptional interview when she attended her entrance assessment at Cambridge. Well done Laura. Congratulations.

Let’s spare a thought for her proud mum Paula whom I have known since she was a pupil at the same school and is now a fellow Thespian at the Ifield Barn Theatre. Congratulations Paula.

 I must also say well done to the four bands that played at The Apple Tree Pub in Crawley on Friday. Yes, I went to a fun-loving-toe-tapping-head banging-noisy-drink happy event and I LOVED IT ! It was one of their noisy fund raising evenings. Over £800 was raised for St Catherine’s Hospice simply by passing round a bucket. Everyone was extremely generous. Thank you.

Mr Butt, who owns the pub, certainly hosts a lively, exhilarating venue. I had a great time and will certainly return again, especially when they hold a similar event for my charity which I hope they will.

Well done Carl Bock for organising such an event and for inviting me along.

I must just mention the four groups, which were  Redfish; The Nite B4’s; Henry’s Head and Dance Romeo. Each band was really good and I am not just saying that . They each played a good variety of up-beat music. Don't ask me what genre it was - as far as I was concerned it was 'rock' music. The ages of the band members varied from the younger members of Redfish to the ‘older’ members of ‘The Nite B 4’s’. 'Henry's Head' reprisented a local Youth Centre known as Dormans. 

On Sunday I was delighted to speak at the Service held at St Margaret’s Church Ifield in aid of the Homeless. Apparently it was ‘Homelessness Sunday’.

Other events this week have included ‘10-10’, a film on Global Warming. I found this very enlightening. At this moment in time, if we do not stop global warming increasing at its present rate, my son, who is now 26 years of age, will be in his 70’s when the world bursts into flame!

 And with that burning thought I will sign off.

Thank fully my diary has been and still is very quiet. I have my first engagement on Saturday, although if this snow remains I can see the Mayoral car being stuck in the snow, which has accumulated in the close where I live. Trust me to live right down the end of a close!

The snow, so far, has not stopped me getting out and about on foot, but I failed to muster the energy to trek to the gym, so that’s one New Year’s Resolution which did not even get off the ground! However, hubby and I did manage to get to Tilgate Forest so that we could sledge. Yes, we went sledging – without children and I have pictures to prove it! Although I have to admit, that the second time we went sledging I did invite friends along who had children.  Thank goodness, I had not disposed of the sledge when our own children had grown up. They might have grown up, but we haven’t

It was wonderful seeing people and families enjoying themselves sledging. As it’s a great way to keep fit, I don’t feel too guilty about not visiting the gym.

People are so keen to sledge they are using anything they can get hold of – inflatable dinghy’s, bits of old shopping trolleys, bin lids, trays, the list is endless. People are even ripping the lids from the large community bins; so that's more money for the Council who will have to replace the missing lids.

Accumulating rubbish in the sledging area is growing daily as plastic sheets and deflated ‘boats’ are discarded. I would like to offer a plea to help the Ammenity Work Teams who are working flat out in this weather.

 Please help by taking discarded sledging aids home with you. 

Don’t forget to check on the local Council Website for news and updates of services, especially regarding household rubbish.

Keep safe, keep warm, keep calm, keep in contact and for those of you enjoying the snow sledging - have a great time!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and celebrated the beginning of a new decade. I had a great time.

On Christmas Day itself, together with my husband, I visited the Emergency Services in Crawley.

The Ambulance Station was first.

We had only been there for a short while, when the only remaining two person crew was called out to an emergency in Horsted Keynes, so of course we had to leave. The other three crews were already out somewhere.

With time on our hands, we called into the ‘Walk-in’ Centre at the local Hospital. The staff were very surprised to see us but very pleased that I had taken the trouble to pop in to wish them Seasonal Greetings and to say a huge thank you.

On to the Fire station.

Once again, a crew was called out, leaving another crew in place to ‘hold the fort’. Whilst at the Fire Station, I was given a guided tour of the premises. Crawley is desperate for a new Fire Station and this tour confirmed the necessity for such a project to be taken forward as soon as possible. Indeed, in my opinion, it is an urgent necessity and vital to a town like Crawley. How the Fire-fighters manage in such a small and outdated facility it beyond me.

How can money be found and at what cost to other services, I hear you ask?  I couldn’t possibly comment until after May, when I sadly relinquish the Role of Mayor.

 Lastly the Police Station.

This was a hive of activity. Again I was given a tour of the premises. Very impressive.  Very modern .  Very Busy. Apparently Christmas Day is always busy, due to ‘domestics’.

A huge thank you to all our wonderful people who work in the Emergency Services and thank you for giving up your Christmas Day to serve the people of our Town. What would we do with out you?

My Christmas Day did not end there. My husband and I went onto Open House which is my Charity for the year. Here we were just in time to help serve dinners to the guests who were there. Apparently, 52 dinners were cooked and served that day. Guests included those with out a home or/and in circumstances of need.

It was a great privilege to meet them, to have the opportunity of talking with them and to join in their Christmas Day. They were a great bunch of characters.

Thank you to all the guests, staff and helpers of Open House. I hope 2010 is a good year for you.

Finally at about 4-30pm, Bob and I arrived home to see what Santa had brought for us; then we sat down together with a glass of something and just chilled!!!

So what are my New Year Resolutions?

Apart from the usual of attending the gym more often, I must also be more pro-active in other areas, such as promoting Girl Guiding; afterall, I am an Ambassador for Girl guiding, so I need to speak up more for this worthy organisation. It is their Centenary, so I encourage you to find out more about the organisation, by looking on thier website.  

 www.girlguiding.org.uk

What resolutions would I promote for the Town? 

Be kind, thoughtful and open to your neighbour and to one another in order to promote and encourage harmony, consideration and communication; so that when poeple drop litter or allow thier dogs to foul the pavements, we can openely draw attention to the situation and encourage better attitudes to social niceties.

Thank you.

Happy 2010.

Wednesday night was Full Council. That's all I intend to say on that subject.

Earlier in the week I had the privilage of attending the Brownie Group in Ifield. They could not attend the Youth Awards so I was awarding the medals at their meeting. This was great as it gave me the opportunity to meet the children, their parents and their leaders. Apparently there is a huge waiting list for this group. There is a severe shortage of leaders, which is a great pity. As the Ambassador for the Guides I must stress how important it is that such groups continue to be active and grow. If you had seen the fun those children were having you would appreciate how important it is that such groups continue and flourish. The children were learning all about team work, commitment and respect - great attributes to have in this day and age.

I would like to thank the two children who gave me Christmas cards and wish every success to those older children who are graduating to the Guides. Well done. I am sure you will be missed.

I was invited to attend and join in, boot camp on Monday evening at Hazelwick School. If anyone wants to give it a go I would highly recommend it. The participants were donating much needed non perishable food to Open House for which I must say a huge thank you.

People have been so generous. A quiz at the Civic Hall, organised by Mr Brown, a council staff member, raised in the region of nearly £200. Thank you everyone involved and thank you Mr Brown .

Although I feel all 'caroled out' I shall be attending the Carol Service at St Margaret's Ifield. Hopefully there will be other 'chains' attending too. Although I have lost count of the number of such services attended in the past couple of weeks, I am looking forward to this one. There's something magical about a Carol Service.

Finally I hope you will forgive my indulgence in wishing my lovely husband and Consort a Happy Ruby Anniversary. We have been married for 40 years on Sunday. He has alaways been there for me, encouraging me in whatever I choose to do. He is a fantastic Consort even though on occasions I have 'fired' him!

Thank you Bob x

Life at the moment is quite hectic but then I am sure it is for most people at this time of year. You could say the speed of life feels about as fast as the new vehicle hoping to challenge the land speed record.

 Who would have thought a vehicle could be designed to travel at 1000mph - Wow! I was blown away when I heard that such a vehicle is set to challenge the land speed record. This is something surely to excite children and youngsters up and down the country.

Such an exciting proposition follows on from a really interesting evening spent in the company of STEM  - an organisation set up to excite school children and students in Science Technology Engineering and Maths.

www.stemsussex.co.uk

Ambassadors, recruited from the various areas of interest and expertise, work with schools to promote subjects in an exciting stimulating and relevant way. That's not to say teachers don't already do so - they do, but this gives an added dimension and opportunity to engage with people whose career and experience involve, or has involved, science, technology, engineering and maths. Local companies are on board with this and I had the privilege of meeting young enthusiasts from companies local to Crawley. It was a truly fascinating evening. Thank you to everyone involved.

The event took place at the Central Sussex College who provided the buffet, which was absolutely delicious.

We are so fortunate in Crawley to have a top class eating establishment in our college - Cordon Vert - where students are trained in the finer arts of preparation, cooking and serving. According to the town's 'Score on the Doors' this establishment is excellent.

Whilst I am singing the Town’s Praise, something I just love to do, I am going to pinpoint two events which recognised local achievement.

The first is the FACE It Awards Evening.

FACE it stands for Face Action for Crawley’s Environment and encourages the community to engage with the Council to improve their local areas; it could be local flower beds, planting hundreds of bulbs, clearing an area, conservation – in fact anything that the local people want to help with and improve. It has been a successful scheme since it was first started some years ago. I am sure it helped greatly with our success in the South East in Bloom earlier in the year, where we were awarded Gold and Gold with Best Overall Town. This has meant that we can now enter the Britain in Bloom, which we are really looking forward too.

I said I would highlight two events; the second is the Youth Awards which celebrates the fantastic achievements of the Young People of our town. The categories include Arts Awards, Community Awards, Sports Awards and Personal Achievement Awards.  It was a truly memorable and amazing evening. The personal courage recipient brought tears to my eyes.

I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that we have a Queen’s Scout in our Town - the first one for some time - who also holds the Duke of Edinborough Award in Bronze, Silver and Gold. She received the Apollo Group Inspiration Award.

Well done.