Mary Reid

These are two very special women, recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours this year.  On the right, Dame Jane Campbell from Tolworth who was made a Dame for her services to social chair and to disabled people. She is Chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence. Her husband, Roger Symes, is on the left.

Between them is Ginny Clarke from Berrylands, who was awarded the CBE - she is Chief Highways Engineer at the Highways Agency. I welcomed them both to the Mayor's Parlour for a reception yesterday evening. They then joined the full council for the first part of the meeting and everyone was able to join in the congratulations.

But they were not the only people we entertained.  James Witt (right), who is 14 and lives in Chessington, has recently become the British Karate Champion in his class for the second year running. He too was congratulated by the whole council.

The third picture shows my chaplain, Rev'd Chris Hollingshurst (left), with one of the associate chaplains, Rev'd Dr Dongwhan Kim, whom we also welcomed.

What followed was my first full council meeting since the Annual Council in May when I was installed as Mayor.  It was quite a nerve-wracking occasion, but I soon settled down and enjoyed being able to chair the meeting and control 47 other councillors, all of whom are in their element when they are thinking on their feet.

At the beginning of the meeting I reported on the progress of e2e4e (end to end for earthquake) and managed to get the councillors to up fill two complete sponsor forms during the meeting!

We tried a new procedure this time, modelled on the Queen's Speech. The Leader of the Council, Cllr Derek Osbourne, outline the administration's policy programme for the next year, and for the whole four year period until the next election.  The Leader of the Opposition, Cllr Howard Jones, responded and then others joined in.  It was a good-humoured debate, with some very funny moments, but no-one underplayed the significance of the occasion.