Mary Reid

Children went back to school at Moor Lane Junior School and straight into a festival of art and poetry on themes drawn from nature. This flock (is that the right word?) of penguins was one of the results. 

Each corridor was decorated with paintings, drawings, collages, scrolls, models and posters. 

In Assembly some children were awarded with the coveted Amazing Artist or Wicked Writer certificates.

I was particularly struck by the intelligent and imaginative work produced by Year 6 in response to the famous painting called The Breaking Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai.

Thanks to those lovely guys at MySociety (well, I would say that, but in fact I've known and admired their work for several years) who listed an idea of mine as one of the four runners-up in their call for new proposals.

They have just announced the winner of the competition to find a new project - it's for a compendium of Freedom of Information requests and results. I think this is an excellent idea.

MySociety is a charitable group, led by Tom Steinberg, who between them have a brilliant knack of identifying and implementing social uses of the Internet. One of their best known sites is WriteToThem.com. It is completely simple to use but has huge social value - key in your postcode and you get email links to all your elected representatives, from councillors to MEPs.

Another prizewinning idea of theirs is PledgeBank, where you can make a pledge to do something provided so many others join you.

So I was astonished to see my proposal for Get Out! up there with the winner. And they might, just might, decide to implement it.  My proposal went like this:

If you like the idea do let MySociety know!

Believe it or not, this is a cake. Well, the top of the Barbie doll is not edible, but the skirt, with its extraordinary icing, really is.

It was made to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the Alzheimers Café, which is a monthly get-together for people with the condition and their carers.

I was moved by the stories of long-term care by partners - it must be desperately sad to be living with someone whom you love but who no longer recognises you and is totally dependent on you. Everyone spoke very highly of the services and support they have received in Kingston.

After tea, the group was entertained by a mezzo-soprano and a pianist, who came courtesy of Live Music Now! This organisation was set up by Yehudi Menuhin with the aim of spreading the enjoyment of live music to people in care homes, hospitals, prisons etc, and also to provide performing opportunities for young professional musicians.

You very rarely see us all together like this.

The Deputy Mayor, Cllr Sheila Griffin, and I donned our mayoral robes and followed our macebearers through the Ancient Market to Kingston Parish Church for the Crown Court Service yesterday morning. We were followed by judges from Kingston Crown Court. As the judges approached the church a fanfare was sounded.

Sadly none of us could take photos as we were all in the parade!

I was curious to know about the history of this event, and I particularly wanted to get some information to the schools who were attending.  So the Mayor's Office did some research and discovered that very few boroughs have such an event.

The Surrey County Archivist told us this:

Although no nosegays were spotted, the Deputy Mayor and I were invited by the judges afterwards to lunch at the Crown Court.

Later:

Thanks to Lucie Moore for the photo.

The Town Crier to the Mayor of London welcomed the Pearly Kings and Queens and a whole gaggle of mayors to Guildhall, London.

It was the Costermongers Parade and Harvest Festival. I was intrigued - what is a costermonger, and where did the Pearly tradition come from?

Costermongers were London market stall holders who sold fruit and vegetables. They attracted customers with street banter and rhyming slang, and used donkey-drawn carts. By the middle ages each market elected a Coster King who fought for the rights of fellow costers and organised fundraising for those in need.

By the 19th century the Kings were sewing pearl buttons on their clothes and their Queens wore huge hats with ostrich feathers, in imitation of high class fashion.

The founder of today's Pearly Kings and Queens was Henry Croft who was born in 1863 and spent his childhood in the workhouse. At the age of fourteen he got a job as a street sweeper and rat catcher in Stepney. But he was deeply moved by the destitution he saw around him, and, being something of a showman, he created elaborate pearly costumes based on the old costermonger outfits. He revived the old traditions of charitable giving amongst the London markets.

Today's Pearly Kings and Queens have inherited their titles from those times and they raise thousands of pounds for charities.

So here I am, joining in the Parade (with the Mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham) to St Mary-le-Bow, to the sound of the Bow bells.

Also in the Parade...

Our Harvest gifts followed us on carts.

Southborough School held a Sports Fayre to raise funds for some much needed sports kit and equipment. I had to call in before it started on Sunday because of my next engagement, but this gave me a chance to chat with the people who had put their time into organising the event and running the stalls.

Here I am with Joseph Hunt, a Year 11 student who has been actively involved with the Fayre Committee, and John Rook, the Head of Southborough.

How many books did you read over the summer?

Not only had these children from Latchmere School managed to read at least six each, but the whole school had beaten all others in the number of books consumed.

This explosion of reading was encouraged by Kingston Libraries in their summer challenge for 2006, which had adetective/special agent theme this year and was named The Reading Mission. 

Hundreds of children in the borough reached the goal of six books. So a draw was held for the final prizewinners who were invited to the Council to receive their prizes - tokens for more books, of course (courtesy of Borders).

The children (and parents) were entertained by a superb storyteller, Kate Corkery, who got all ages involved in telling some Irish tales.

Thanks to Alan Richardson for the photos

Narrow boats, river cruisers, barges - all moored along the Queen's Promenade for the RNLI Regatta within sight of Raven's Ait.

Fortunately the tail end of the hurricane that drenched us on Friday had swept away and it was one of those surprisingly warm end-of-summer days by the river.  Fundraising stalls were set up along the path, mainly in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution itself or other water-related organisations such as the Surbiton Sea Scouts.

I'm not a boating person myself, but I can well imagine the joys of living on a converted barge and setting off to join fellow enthusiasts at beautiful spots over the weekends.

This regatta was the start of the Surbiton Festival, which culminates in the Festival Parade in Victoria Road next Saturday.

This is the garden of the Shooting Star Children's Hospice in Hampton Hill, on my first visit since it opened last year. It is a truly wonderful place - and it must have been so exciting to be able to create such a high quality building which reflects all the current thinking about palliative care for children and for their families.

Every detail is thought through - from the ways in which a child's room can be given decorative touches to match the age of interests of the child, through the comfortable family suites, to the blissful sensory room full of lights, colour, sounds and even smells.

I will be attending a Chessington fundraiser for Shooting Star next month. The hospice serves the borough of Kingston, so I am only too happy to support this charity which has, incidently, been chosen by the Mayor of Richmond as one of his charities this year. 

So what lessons have we learned about e-democracy in the last few years?

Two years ago I chaired and spoke at the first London Connects workshop on e-democracy so I was gratified to be asked back to the second one a couple pf weeks ago to give an update. My topic was 'London e-Democracy - Lessons Learned'. You can download my presentation from here.

Today I spoke at the Local Elections Conference, sponsored by the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and was in very illustrious company. 

Bridget Prentice MP, Minister at the DCA, spoke about the vital need to keep democratic practices alive. I agreed with her completely, but as her title was 'Reconnecting the Public to the Political Process' I did ask her about the role that political parties should play in this. She did, of course, say that they have a huge role, and I was pleased that this set the tone for much of the discussion during the day.  The delegates included a larger than usual proportion of councillors, so on several occasions we came back to the need to celebrate the centrality of politics rather than pretend that it is just an unfortunate by-product of government.

Sam Younger, Chair of the Electoral Commission which has done so much to encourage people to vote, had an even more challenging title to work to: 'Apathy, New Ways of Voting and the Future of Local Democracy'.  He kicked out Apathy straight away; people are not apathetic about government, he claimed, as they do care about local services and facilities, but they don't often connect those services with the local council.

Not surprisingly, I was tasked with talking about 'Engaging Citizens between Elections'. 

I've been trying out a different approach to giving presentations, inspired by the book 'Beyond Bullet Points' by Cliff Atkinson. This technique is based on the old traditions of story telling, and developed further by film-makers. It does seem to be effective, although if you do download the one above you will see that it does involve a lot of pictures but little text on the screen.  The main messages are given directly by the speaker, so the slides alone only tell part of the story.

I felt quite at home yesterday speaking to this crowd of students at Kingston College, having spent many years teaching there myself .

I had been invited to answer questions from the new intake of students to the Pathway course. They wanted to know what my job entailed, how much I got paid (fair enough - it's public money), who I managed, and what would happen if I lost the chains (oops! perish the thought). There were also some perceptive questions about local services and levels of crime in the borough.

In previous years the Pathway students have run events to raise money for the Mayor's Charity, so I was really pleased to be able to tell them that my charity this year would be giving grants to young people like themselves. I look forward to meeting them again later in the year and finding out how they are getting on.

One of the delights of this job is the chance to indulge my love of music. So I was quick to accept an invitation to a concert in the splendid Cadogan Hall in Chelsea.

But this was a rather special event because it was the first central London concert given by a fledgling orchestra. The Thames Youth Orchestra started as a collaboration between the two Tiffin Schools, and now has members from ten different schools in the area. Its aim is to become the equivalent of a county youth orchestra for South West London.

Talented young musicians derive so much benefit, and develop their musicianship immeasurably, from working through the orchestral repertoire under strong professional leadership, so this is very welcome.

The musical director, Simon Ferris, challenged these young people to perform in a variety of styles from Beethoven and Mendelssohn to Sibelius (a particular favourite of mine), and they produced a good range of colour and tone. He also introduced me to Borodin's 2nd Symphony, which is as dramatic and tuneful as the popular Polovetsian Dances from Prince Igor.

I was impressed by the cheerful confidence of the young players - this kind of positive attitude to the task and obvious enjoyment in the music, easily compensates for the inevitable glitch. There were also some fine solos from a number of sections. 

I do hope they invite me again!

Imagine you had learning difficulties and found yourself alone and unable to communicate your needs and feelings. It's tough. Now put that into a context where important decisions have to be made about your future - you might have been arrested, or in hospital facing risky treatment. 

This is just one of the support roles offered by KAG Advocacy.  It used to be known as Kingston Advocacy Group, but they now extend their services to Richmond and Epsom so the acronym seemed more appropriate.

At their AGM, I learnt that KAG Advocacy have over 100 trained volunteers who between them put in an astonishing 3,500 hours of service last year.  As well as supporting and speaking for people with learning difficulties they also provide a mentoring service for people with mental health problems who want to return to work, and they run two self-help forums for people in their two target groups.

They can be contacted at rights@kag.org.uk

It was a warm afternoon, so the prospect of a BBQ was very pleasant. We just had to find the white hut in the middle of Tolworth Allotments. 

The gardening club made us very welcome. Under the leadership of Joe Xavier, they encourage as many people as possible to try out organic gardening methods. By linking with local Scouts and with Age Concern they have drawn in both young and old.

One day the Mayor of Lyme Regis was out and about on the beach (where else?) and he bumped into the Deputy Mayoress of a neighbouring town, whom he knew.

Deputy Mayoress : "Meet my friends. They come from Kingston upon Thames".

Mayor: "What a coincidence! I was just trying to contact the Mayor of Kingston to ask for permission to wear my chains at the Great River Race".

Friend of Deputy Mayoress: "No problem. I'll phone her now.... Hi Mary, I've got the Mayor of Lyme Regis here." (Hands mobile to Mayor.)

Mayor: "Are you really the Mayor of Kingston, or is this a wind-up?"

Me: "No, it is me. You've just met the friends we went on holiday with last week. What can I do for you?"

Mayor: "I need your permission to wear my chains at the Great River Race."

Me: "Sorry, not in my patch, you need to ask Richmond.  But do say hello on the day."

So we did...

As a postscript - they do practice some strange rituals in Lyme Regis.

Susan Kramer (right), MP for Richmond Park, is a very plucky woman. Although a novice oarswoman she took part in the Great River Race 2006 yesterday - and finished in a  very creditable time of 3 hours 21 minutes.

This was even more impressive when you know that the race is over 22 miles, from Ham to the Isle of Dogs. All the boats - and nearly 300 entered this year - must carry a cox and a passenger. Many types of vessels take part, from dinghies to dragon boats, including several historic boats. 

The number of rowers per boat varied from 2 right up to 22. Susan rowed in a Thames Racing Skiff, so she had to provide 50% of the oar-power. Very impressive.

She was rowing to raise funds for Emily's Fund, in memory of Emily Jenkins who was killed in the London tube bombings.

You can just see Susan in boat number 132 at their start.

The starting times were staggered, giving the faster boats a handicap. The winner is the first boat to cross the finishing line, and this year it was won by an Atlantic Race Boat, as part of their training for a trans-atlantic crossing next January.

Susan Kramer wasn't the only Kingston interest in the race this year. Here are the Kingston Beaks (sorry, one is missing) - two teams of magistrates who competed against each other in Thames Double Skiffs.

The two teams finished in times of 3 hours 44 minutes, and 4 hours 2 minutes. So treat them with due respect if you should happen to meet them in their official capacity.

I just had to include this photo of the starting gun...

It's not often that the Mayor is upstaged by a fluffy zebra....

Debra the Zebra, Cllr Simon James and I were at the Good Going Awards 2006. Pictures created by the children here are all featured in the Walking to School Calendar for 2006/7.

The Road Safety and Travel Awareness Unit of the Council does a fantastic job in making the roads of Kingston one of the safest places in London. James Parker heads up a team that helps schools and businesses to develop green travel plans, keeps up the excellent cycle network, encourages walking - including the walking buses to schools - and generally promotes road safety.

They also work with Transport for London, who sponsored a photo competition on aspects of travel in the borough.

Here are two of the winning entries. It might not be obvious that the word 'WALK' is made out of dozens of pairs of shoes.

Yesterday evening I was invited to the Leavers' Celebration at Tiffin School. All the current students in Years 12 and 13 attended along with many of those who left last summer.

We applauded some very real achievements in the Arts and Sports - from an oustandingly successful senior rowing four, through bridge (a relatively new sport) to the national acclaim of the choir. On the academic side, 39 students gained at least three A grades at A Level, and 50 gained at least ten A* or A grades at GCSE.

David Starkey, the historian and broadcaster, was the guest speaker. He spoke about his own schooling, and especially the skills he learnt in public speaking.  I noticed that his website domain is www.goodqueenbess.com and his car registration is V111 HEN - so we have a pretty strong clue about where his historical interests lie. He is currently working on a series on The Monarchy for Channel 4.

The education of children caught up in areas of conflict is often severely disrupted. Schooling can be interrupted by periods of intense fighting, by damage to buildings and equipment, and even by the forcible recruitment of children. 

Save the Children claims that 43 million children are denied schooling because of conflict.  This not only damages the life chances of the individuals, but also makes the development of democratic practices within countries even less likely in the future.

The Rewrite the Future campaign involves young people themselves, by giving them information and encouraging them to lobby for access to education for their peers across the world.

One of the launch events was held in Coombe Girls School, where I was invited to take part in a role play activity with some Year 9 students. The event culminated in them writing 'blackboards' - messages that will be presented to the Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn MP.

The soldiers will never leeve me alone - the misspelling is deliberate, because conflict reduces the chance of an education

At the end I reminded them that there are children in Kingston who have first hand experience of this. They have come as refugees from war-torn countries and are now settled into our schools, gaining the education that they have a right to and that we take for granted.

We were all shocked to hear of the death of former Councillor, Dilys Coy, following a short illness.

Dilys was elected to Kingston Council in 2002 for Old Malden ward. She was the headteacher of Abbotsbury Primary school in Merton, and took a keen interest in children's issues on Kingston Council, serving on the Children, Youth and Culture Overview Panel.  She did not seek re-election in 2006.

On behalf of the whole Council, I will pay tribute to her at the next Council meeting. We will all miss her.

It's not often that I take photos during a speech - especially when I'm the one giving the speech! But that's just what I did here.

These are some of the members of the Rotary Club of New Malden who welcomed me, with due ceremony, as an Honorary Member for the year.

We are fortunate in having three Rotary Clubs in the borough, all of whom do a fantastic amount of community service and charitable giving.

A number of the New Malden members assist children at The Mount School. They also get involved in the Malden Fortnight, and with both Christmas lights and hanging baskets in the High St. And all the local clubs together organise the Kids Out Day to Thorpe Park which I was delighted to attend earlier.

It was a very convivial evening, with a good meal and enjoyable conversation. I was sitting next to the President, Jean Skinley, whom you can see in the final photo, sitting with some of the officers of the club.

Here are a couple of photos to show you how the Devon Way Centre is progressing. 

From a rather rundown youth facility, with many areas that were barely servicable, is now emerging a suite of a dozen or so rooms that will be used both as an activity centre for over 55s and as a youth centre. 

The building is light and airy, and will have comfortable flooring and furnishings. The ICT suite and food serving facilities will be shared by all the users, whilst some rooms will be specifically for the use of one group or the other.

This is going to be a wonderful addition to the resources in the borough - and I'm delighted that it is in the ward I represent (and where I live): Chessington North and Hook.

I represented the borough at two church services yesterday.

The first was at Kingston United Reformed Church in the centre of the town. With New Malden United Reformed Church they have jointly appointed Suk In Lee as an associate minister, acting as a bridge with the Korean community. Suk In has been on training placements with the churches for a while so they know him well. Yesterday he was ordained as a Minister and welcomed by the church congregations in a bilingual service that conveyed warmth in both languages.

The former moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, Rev Ji Il Pang, brought greetings from Korea and had come over specially for the event.

The second was also an induction of a new minister, this time at Surbiton Hill Methodist Church.  Rev Joan Edwell was welcomed by the Chair of the District, Rev Jenny Impey, and again by a supportive congregation. She has just moved from Haywards Heath and some of her friends from there had travelled up to support her.

Methodist churches all change ministers at the same time of the year, and Jenny Impey admitted that this was the ninth induction she had celebrated in the last two weeks.

Interestingly, the same three hymns appeared in both services.  They were 'Great is thy faithfulness', 'Bind us together, Lord' and 'Be thou my vision', all sung with enthusiasm in both places.

This is William Stone - unbelievably he will be 106 years old later this month! He served in both the First and Second World Wars and has become something of a celebrity recently. In fact, he cheerfully talks about the proposal to give him a State Funeral as the longest survivor of service in WW1.

I was enormously privileged to meet him on Sunday and he was excellent company.

The event itself was rather special - we were travelling on one of the private boats that was commandeered to take part in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.

Six of these boats gathered at Kingston then set off upstream with a couple of dozen veterans on board. Flags were flying and the boats were cheered on their way as we went through Molesey and Shepperton Locks.

Two of the Dunkirk Little Boats preparing to leave Kingston

It was a perfect late summer day, warm but not uncomfortably hot.

William Stone and fellow veterans in the leading boat - other boats coming along behind

Our destination was the Weybridge Mariners Club, which had sadly lost its clubhouse in a fire earlier this year. We were greeted by a piper and a guard of men in WW2 army uniforms, who had also brought with them a number of military vehicles from the same period.

The welcome party

Yesterday was pretty busy, with five consecutive engagements. The final one took me to 7th Malden Scouts. 

The two guys standing on either side of me showed some enterprise in mounting an exhibition of their photos, and got the support of friends on either side to make it happen. They are raising funds to attend the World Scout Jamboree which will be held in England in 2007.

Matt Green (in black) and David Young (in the white shirt) have formed Panther Images to market their work. I was greatly impressed by the quality and imagination of the photography, and ordered a print of this image created by a torch on a very long exposure.

More exhibits from Surbiton Horticultural Society....(I visited their summer show back in June)

How do you get parsnips to grow like that?  Well, it was explained to me and it involves drilling down two feet and carefully shaping the hole.  Hope I'm not giving away too many trade secrets.

Queen Anne has looked over the Ancient Market in Kingston for 300 years, and she was rewarded by the market traders today with a garland of flowers.  It was already in place when I arrived but apparently had required a step ladder and a full health and safety assessment.

You can also just see, right at the bottom of the picture, that the date, MDCCVI, has been cleaned up and regilded.

This was another bright idea from the 'Gang of Four' - John Pink of the Kingston Tour Guides, John McCarthy of the Friends of Kingston Museum, and Michael Davison and Tony Leitch of the Kingston Society.

We heard something of the history of the statue.  The Queen was clearly very popular during her reign, so a considerable sum was raised to build the statue outside what was then the Guildhall, in spite of the fact that there is no record of her ever having visited Kingston. 

Queen Anne suffered greatly from ill-health, and had nineteen children, only one of whom survived infancy, but then died at the age of eleven.

I gave the toast 'To Queen Anne, and her statue which has graced the Ancient Market Place of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames for 300 years.'

Our next stop was John Lewis. where in a very large basement area, mainly hidden from public view, we were able to walk around the massive walls and pier that supported the end of the original Kingston Bridge. This was built in the 12th century and was of great importance because it was the only bridging point between here and London Bridge.

From the riverside walkway, on the downstream side of the current bridge, you can look through the windows into some of this space.

From this point you can see clearly the 14th century undercroft (right)- the cellar to a merchant's house - but you can't see the bridge.

Today we were there to inaugurate an interpretation plaque beside the window, which does explain what is on view as well as the hidden treasures.

I chatted with the relatively new manager of the store about the possibility of making the whole area accessible to the public. It does need some attention to disabled access but I'm sure that could be easily arranged.

These two events were part of Heritage Open Day and we then went back to the Guildhall, which was one of the buildings open to the public for the day.  I welcomed several groups of visitors to the Mayor's Parlour and explained about the maces, robes, pictures and other items on display.

(Note to myself to blog about the regalia sometime....)

The new altar at Our Lady Immaculate Church in Tolworth is a bold statement of the faith of the church.  But its design grew out of a recognition of the power of art to express deep truths. The church is to be congratulated on its courage in commissioning what has turned out to be a deeply satisfying work.

It is one of several new pieces that together make up the elements of the newly re-orderd sanctuary in the church. The sculptor, Theo Gillick, used an extraordinary white stone from Portugal, called mocha, which he said was perfect to work with. As you can see it looks quite stunning.

This evening the Archbishop of Southwark conducted an intricate service of dedication, supported by several dozen priests, in the context of a Mass. The large and appreciative congregation watched as it was sprinkled, anointed and incensed and then dressed with cloths, flowers and candles to prepare it for its primary purpose.

Paul Stafford, an artist from Kingston University, had the quirky idea of converting a former public convenience in Clarence Street into an art gallery. 

Invitations to events at the Toilet Gallery are printed on scratchy toilet paper, and the building still has a (non-functional) cubicle in place.

All the jokes have been done over and over again - but if you feel moved to go, do spend a metaphorical penny to see the latest show there. 

It consists of two installations by Terue Yamauchi, who came over from Japan to study at the University.

In the photo you can see Terue becoming a part of her own artwork - you can just see the video of a never ending journey through a tunnel projected on her body.

The other installation/video is rather spooky, and impossible to photograph, but mesmeric as your eyes adjust.

I wrote this article for e-Government Bulletin this week.

What Blogs Bring to the Mayor's Office

Until May this year I was a normal political blogger, commenting on issues in the ward where I am a councillor, reflecting on the national scene and campaigning for re-election. Then I became Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and had to rethink how to blog while upholding the political neutrality of the role.

Kingston has a traditional representative Mayor, not an elected executive one, so I spend most of my time out and about in the Borough. A large part of the job consists of recognising and thanking all the people and organisations that contribute to the wellbeing of the community.

The Mayor's attendance at an event gives added value to that activity, but its impact is mainly limited to those who are present. How can a blog be used to amplify that? The approach I have taken is to write a short piece about each event, with photos wherever possible. My camera goes everywhere with me.

The blog itself broadcasts the event to a wider audience. It is a public affirmation of the community's recognition and a permanent record of my thanks. I usually email the organisation afterwards explaining that I have written something about them. I do know that people are pleased to have been mentioned in the Mayor's blog, and that they share this with friends and colleagues - another way in which my appreciation is amplified.

The local press has now started to trawl my blog for copy, and large chunks of text have appeared in the local newspaper. One benefit of this is that my comments are (usually) presented accurately. Another happy outcome is that the press mentions organisations that otherwise might not have been covered.

The Deputy Mayor, Councillor Sheila Griffin, also has a blog which she uses in a similar way, with plentiful photos. We think we are the only such blogging pair in the country.

Both of us got started through the ReadMyDay pilot, sponsored by the Local E-Democracy National Project. Inspired by blogging coach Griff Wigley of Minnesota councillors and council officers have been developing the concept of civic leadership blogging in the UK.

Since May several other Mayors of top tier authorities have started blogs, including Suzanne Fletcher of Stockton Borough Council, Nic Hodges at Vale of Glamorgan, and Judy Butt of Poole Borough Council. Over in Ampthill, a small market town in Bedfordshire, the Town Mayor, Penny Foster carries on the blogging tradition started by her predecessor, Mark Smith.

The London Borough of Lewisham is unusual in having two mayors. The 'Young Mayor' serves a term of one year and works alongside the 'Old Mayor', acting as an advocate and spokesperson for the Borough's young people. At present, the Young Mayor is Wilf Petherbridge, who writes occasional blog entries about his role setting an example for his 'old' colleague, Steve Bullock.

And my blog got a mention in the Surrey Comet today although I can't find the article on their website.

Petrol costs £1.30 per litre and you buy it from the laundrette. But with only ten miles of roads, a litre lasts a long time, as do the cars themselves judging by the age of the registrations.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly is a unitary authority with 21 councillors and an annual budget of only £5 million. But that is still £2500 per resident compared with less than £1000 in Kingston. It provides 10% of the employment in the islands.

The Council looks after all those miles of roads, two police officers, an airport and thousands of acres of protected countryside and coastline, in conjunction with the landlord, the Duchy of Cornwall.

We went over to Tresco yesterday to visit the world famous gardens, chock full of semi-tropical plants. No cars here so visitors to the island walk or cycle. On the paths around the island we passed beaches of pure white san