Mary Reid

Kingston Council aims to be a good employer, and it is great when the people who deliver the services are supported, encouraged and rewarded.

Yesterday the Community Care Services department recognised the staff who had achieved a long list of qualifications, from NVQ Level 1 right up to degrees and postgraduate certificates. I know from my own experience how tough it is trying to study part-time whilst holding down a demanding job, so it was good to congratulate all the achievers.

Then came a delightful stage in the programme when Quality Awards were given to people who had been nominated by their colleagues because of the high quality of their work.

The overall winner was Liliana Stark at Murray House (on the left in this picture). I had met her when we planted a tree there, which was one of her imaginative ideas.

I'm afraid I forgot my camera, but I hope someone at the event will be sending me some photos to post here.

Later

Thanks to Kris Mayers for this photo of many of the award winners.

This morning I was invited to speak to a research seminar at the Institute for Public Policy Research. They are exploring the impact of local media on citizenship, and this particular session was looking at digital media. I was one of five speakers, all approaching the topic from very different perspectives.

I returned to the theme I was exploring last week - a comparison of Kingston's e-petitions and those at 10 Downing Street. I explained about how in Kingston we encourage participation at meetings and working groups, especially at Neighbourhood level, so e-petitions fit neatly into processes that are already interactive.

I claimed that the value of e-democracy tools, such as e-petitions, online forums, consultations, blogs etc, depends on the participatory framework within which they operate. If they are introduced into a traditional representative democracy, where there is little citizen participation, then they can have one of three effects.  If we are lucky e-democracy tools can ease the transition into participatory representative democracy (where elected representatives encourage participation, but ensure that all voices are heard), but alternatively they can initiate the slide towards direct democracy (where citizens by-pass elected representatives and use methods such as referenda to make decisions), or they can bounce up against the problems (as at No 10) and start a real debate about how to support and respond to participation.

This rather splendid lion was greeted enthusiastically at the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations held on Sunday in Tolworth. It danced around the room then managed to grab a lettuce that was suspended above it, 'eat' it and eventually spit it out to lots of cheers.

The New Year was actually the weekend before but many people were up in London joining the celebrations there, so the Kingston Chinese Association decided to hold their party a week later.

After some speeches we were treated to an excellent concert that included acrobats, music, singing, dancing and Kung Fu demonstrations.

At the end we gave out red packets (envelopes containing cash) and goodie bags to the children.

This is the year of the golden pig - an auspicious year, it seems.

The London Mayors Association is, I must admit, rather exclusive; to join you have to be a current or past mayor of one of the London boroughs. Even so, it has a large and thriving membership with meetings and excursions throughout the year.

I haven't managed to get along to many of their events this year because they always seem to clash with commitments in Kingston, so I expect I'll get more benefit from it in future years. But I did enjoy the annual parade and service at Westminster Abbey.

One of the highlights of the year is the LMA dinner, which Ian and I enjoyed on Saturday. It is the first time that I have seen the Lord Mayors of London and of Westminster at the same event. Both spoke passionately about the importance of local government. The guest speaker was Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. He was amusing, but in a serious vein reminded us that the central policing functions, such as the Homicide and Terrorist Units, were as important to our boroughs as the much praised Safer Neighbourhoods teams.

Back in 1987 the Mayor, Cllr Jenny Philpott, was so impressed by all the voluntary organisations that she had visited during her year that she instituted the Mayor's Community Awards. Since then the awards have been presented each year to a dozen or so individuals who have given much of their time, energy and skills to serving the community. Many of these express their community spirit by helping organisations that care and support people, whilst others enrich our lives through the arts.

Yesterday I welcomed guests to two 'At Home' sessions, at which this year's awards were celebrated. It was also a wonderful opportunity to chat with many of the people I have been meeting since last May, and then to publicly thank them for all that they do to make the borough a friendly and interesting place to live in.

The award winners at the lunchtime At Home

The award winners in the evening

The Safer Neighbourhood team for Chessington celebrating the award for Sgt James Ellis

The Mayor chairs the Council when it meets every six weeks or so. As Chair I do not express my views in any of the debates, much as I would like to on occasions. To be consistent, I also do not sign any petitions that are going to be presented to me at Council.

So it is rather irritating to be criticised for not having signed a petition. I would normally dismiss this as a misunderstanding of my rôle, but it is less easy to cope with when false assumptions are made about my views and values.

In The Informer this week a councillor criticises me for not having signed a petition on behalf of the Kingston Association for the Blind, and then jumps to the conclusion that I do not support the disabled.

That puts me in the uncomfortable position of having to defend myself, when anyone who knows me will realise that the conclusion is totally untrue.

Over 25 years ago I was asked to set up a community care scheme where I lived. At the time I had two young children and was just returning to work full-time, so didn't think I could give it the time it deserved. Thankfully others took it on and the Chessington and Hook Voluntary Care Scheme is still flourishing.

I've just got back from their AGM, and it's the only AGM I've been to that provided an hour's musical entertainment after the meeting! But the real treat was hearing about the amount of work they have been doing during the year, mainly transporting people to shops or for medical appointments.

They were displaced from their office in the old Community Centre during the new build, but are now very happily settled into the Hook Centre. The scheme is always looking for volunteers who can drive and enjoy meeting people. And they are always ready to accept new clients.

Enjoying refreshments after the AGM

The Kingston upon Thames Society is committed to conserving all that is good about the built environment of Kingston and promoting high quality new buildings. Each year it awards the highly valued Townscape Awards at its AGM.

I was really sorry I couldn't get to that meeting, but the Deputy Mayor chaired it in my absence, and blogged about it.

So I was very pleased to be asked to attend one of their monthly meetings - these cover a variety of topics about the buildings in the Borough. They are an enthusiastic group of civic-minded folk, many of whom I've met in other contexts.

Yesterday evening the talk was given by David Robinson, who, until his retirement, was the Surrey County Council Archivist. He told us why Surrey County Hall came to be built in Kingston, rather than Guildford, (complacency on the part of Guildford, it seems) and described its architecture. I commented on the frequent glimpses of County Hall in films and plays; most recently it provided the setting for The Verdict on BBC2.

Left: Jennifer Butterworth, Chair. Right: David Robinson

Here are some pictures of food - before I ate it....

Apparently, in Thailand it is traditional to invite the head of a village to attend a celebration to bring it blessings.

Well, I wish every blessing on the Patcharee Thai Restaurant near Kingston Station. They invited me, along with local businesses, for a first anniversary party this evening.

Narong and Pat (the restaurant is named after her) entertained us very well, with an excellent range of dishes, all cooked with fresh ingredients.

They then introduced some delightful traditional Thai dancers in the most wonderful costumes.  The (male) monkey is after the (female) fish - it was comic and charming,with expressive mime and hand gestures.

I was invited to contribute to the e-Government Bulletin blog, so I wrote a piece about e-petitions, inspired by the 1.7 million signatures against road pricing on the petition on the 10 Downing Street site.  

My article has produced some reactions around the e-democracy village. Since it was largely about Kingston, I'll repeat it in full here...

Local e-petitions

The panicky reaction to the million strong petition on the No 10 site raises a wry smile in local government. The democratic impact of e-petitions, and of petitions in general, is rather more positive from where I stand.

Kingston upon Thames pioneered e-petitions a couple of years ago and they are still going strong. See them on http://epetitions.kingston.gov.uk/.

The main difference between our petitions (whether online or on paper) and those delivered to No 10 is that any petition placed before the Council MUST be considered by one of the committees, if it is about anything for which the Council has responsibility. The petitioner has the right to speak to full Council when presenting a petition and again when it comes before a committee.

Petitions are taken seriously and officer time is devoted to researching and reporting on the issues raised.

Facetious, vexatious or irrelevant petitions are ruled out right from the start. The petitioner is given helpful guidance, on a one-to-one level, about the wording of a petition and where it should be presented before it is posted. Each petition is then tracked so that visitors to the site can find out when it is being discussed and the outcome.

One interesting aspect of our e-petitioning system is the way it has empowered young people to campaign on issues. The No 10 petitioning site is simple and transparent, but it is clear that there is no back office system in place to actually deal with the issues raised. The astonishing number of petitions that have been listed demonstrate how few opportunities citizens have to express their views to Westminster. Sadly, No 10 seems to think that all they need to provide is a graffiti wall, but with no obligation to read what is written on it.

Central government really does have something to learn from local government about how to respond when citizen participation is encouraged.

I admitted to having great difficulty in taking any decent photos of the spectacular performamce by Dulsori on Friday.

But Mike Matuszek, a freelance photographer who often does work for the Surrey Comet, has sent me these. Aren't they good?

This morning my own church, St Paul's Hook, welcomed guests for the third in the series of Civic Services - the other two were in a synagogue and mosque. People from across the faith groups in the Borough attended as well as some past mayors and other civic representatives.

It was a delightful event, with all the dignity that the robes and maces bring to these occasions, coupled with friendliness and informality.   Rev'd Chris Hollingshurst, the Vicar and my chaplain, had created a service that picked out elements of the mayoral year. So Rabbi Danny Rich spoke about the Review of Faith in Civic Life, of which these three Civic Services are an outcome.

Halima Moin, who was Kingston's Member of the UK Youth Parliament last year spoke about the Kingston Youth Council and was joined by KYC member David Thompson, who is involved in our parish. She also told them about Young Kingston, as she is on the Steering Group.

I then interviewed some of the members of the School Council at St Paul's Primary whom I had met recently. And Ethelred joined us in church!

Some of the visitors and participants at the Civic Service

Dulsori gave one of the most exciting and energetic musical performances I have ever seen. They are a troupe of Korean drummers, who play all kinds of drums and percussion instruments at an amazing pace and with huge panache.

Yesterday they had an audience of 200 pupils at Coombe Girls shouting, clapping and singing - a wonderful end to the half term.

I had great difficulty getting any decent photos because the performers moved around too much - and then my battery ran out. So this rather gentle picture sadly gives no idea of the power of the performance.

I've written before about the excellent LIFE initiative. Young people with challenging lives are offered the chance to train as firefighters for a week at New Malden Fire Station. They learn the value of discipline when working as a team to save lives, discover strengths that they don't know they have, and thoroughly enjoy themselves.

At the end of the week they put on a demonstration then are awarded certificates and praised for what they have achieved.

Have a good look at this photo - everyone with a yellow helmet a young person who has only been doing this for a week.

Michael Frayn is a writer of extraordinary breadth. He is one of our greatest comedy writers - Noises Off is, in my view, the funniest play ever staged - and yet he has also written such individual and challenging plays as Copenhagen and Democracy. 

Kingston can claim him as one of its own, because he was a pupil at Kingston Grammar School. Yesterday he came back to name the school library as the Frayn Library.

As a teenager that I always turned first to the witty columns in the Guardian written by a Michael Frayn. I had been wondering for years whether this was the same writer who has gone on to win the Whitbread Prize for Spies, a study of wartime suburbia through the eyes of child. I had my chance yesterday to check with him that they really were one and the same.

I also managed to ask him where he had pictured Spies taking place (having located it in my own imagination near Tooting Common) and he said it was inspired by his own childhood in Ewell.

Here we are chatting with the Head, Duncan Baxter, looking on

Afterwards I was treated to the Junior School production of The Arabian Nights in the splendid theatre in the schools' Performing Arts Centre. This was opened last year by the Queen.

This was a well-staged production, with a large cast dressed in delightful costumes. The young people acted with charm, confidence and good humour.

Yesterday evening we held the Neighbourhood Committee for the first time in the Community Hall in the Hook Centre. It took around 60 people very comfortably. You can only see half the top table in the  photo.

Many of the items related to issues in particular roads - Lynton Close, Gilders Road, Rosemary Gardens, Osbourne Way. But we also decided on how to spend the £468,000 allocated to highway maintenance in the Neighbourhood for 2007-8. We gave priority to pavements, and will be resurfacing or repairing pavements in 14 different roads. Some roadways will also be reconstructed.

We agreed to install a youth shelter in King Edwards Recreation Ground, and to review its use after the summer season.

And at last we are able to put in two more pedestrian crossings on Tolworth Broadway, to replace the subway. This will not only be much more convenient for shoppers but will also link the two sides of the Broadway much better and make it feel much more like a single shopping area.

... is open.  The prices are reasonable and you can just pop in without using any other facilities.

I welcomed Princess Anne to the Royal Borough this afternoon.

Her Royal Highness is the Patron of Citizens Advice Bureaux and had asked to see a good local CAB in practice. So Kingston CAB was very gratified that they had been chosen.

Pippa Mackie, the Chief Executive of Kingston CAB, and Peter Gray, Chair of Trustees, showed the princess round. She met all the employees and volunteers and was genuinely interested in the range of work they do.

More photos from the event....

Princess Anne with Pippa Mackie and Peter Gray

A new 150 room hotel is opening in June. It will have a large restaurant with unrivalled views of unusual wildlife, a substantial conference and function suite, and a pool and spa.

And where will this be? Not in the centre of Kingston, as you might expect, but right down in the southern end of the borough. Holiday Inn Chessington will be part of Chessington Wolrd of Adventures. It will have a safari theme and will look out over parkland stocked with exotic species.

But the  hotel will cater for wider uses than the obvious theme park tourism. Today I met the new Hotel Manager, Jo White, and was given a privileged tour of the building site - not as Mayor but as a Neighbourhood councillor.

From left: Jo White, me, Mike Vallis (manager of Chessington World of Adventures), Cllr Tricia Bamford

Just imagine, sitting here in the restaurant, watching the zebras at the watering hole ... I must get back later in the year and take another photo from this very spot!

The boroughs of Kingston and Merton have been working together for some years on a number of projects and partnerships. For example, we share expertise and training for school improvement, and we are working together on our major waste disposal strategies.

So I have done my bit to encourage good relations by meeting the Mayor of Merton, Cllr Geraldine Stanford, and other councillors and officers on a number of occasions. Last night the Deputy Mayor and I, with our husbands, attended the Mayor of Merton's Charity Ball at Cannizaro House, a spendid Georgian house (now a hotel) on Wimbledon Common.

It was a good evening. And oddly enough I won another prize in the raffle (do you remember Ethelred?) - this time a bottle of champagne.

By the way, whenever we attend mayoral charity events held by other boroughs, or indeed in Kingston, we always pay for the tickets from our own pockets. I had to mention that before someone accuses us of wasting the council's budget!

I haven't written much this year about ward issues, but I have been carrying on my role as a ward councillor throughout. Today was an example of the methods we use to arrive at decisions with local residents.

This morning councillors and traffic engineers had a street meeting in Green End at 9.30am. The people living in all 14 houses had been invited and half turned up in spite of the rain. We walked up and down, discussed the problems with parking and access, and some good solutions were suggested.

The next step will be to draw up a consultation based on the residents' ideas. This will be circulated to all the houses. The results will be reported to the Neighbourhood meeting on 28th March at 7.30pm in Southborough School. Anyone can turn up and join in the debate on the day, and hopefully we'll have a solution in place soon after which will please everyone.

I was invited to a French Breakfast today - croissant, coffee and entertainment from the boys of Surbiton Prep School.

The Year 6 boys, resplendant in bow ties, acted as waiters and spoke to the gathered parents very politely in French. Then we enjoyed songs and short scenes from all the classes, all in French. It was a fun way for the pupils to practise their language skills. Here are some of them singing to us all.

Later in the day I took Ethelred to St Mary's Primary, Chessington, where he helped to open up the conversation with the School Council. They then got down to business asking me about the job of Mayor. As usual I challenged them to think about ways in which the area where they live could be improved and to email me with ideas.

Then off to the ICT suite, which has been very generously upgraded by The Accessory People and supported by Business IT. There was nothing for me to safely cut, by way of an opening ceremony, so I just thanked people and declared it operational (which it has been for some time, anyway!)

Finally Ethelred met the whole school at Assembly which gave me an opportunity to tell the children a little bit about Kingston's history.

I've been cheerfully telling my brother and sister-in-law in Canada that we have been enjoying the mildest winter for nearly a century. They, of course, have been feet deep in snow for weeks. 

So it is deeply ironic that they are flying in to Heathrow today to 'severe weather'.

They are going to find it hysterical that a few inches of snow have shut hundreds of schools, disrupted rail journeys and featured as the main item in the news.

But I can tell you that there have been no reported delays in Kingston and all the major roads are clear.

I've not written much about my charity this year - that's because I've been doing something a little different.

The Mayor usually chooses one or more local charities and then holds a series of fund raising events during the year.

I decided to set up a new charitable fund called Young Kingston, in keeping with my theme of empowering young people. It will be administered by the highly respected Thames Community Foundation.

Young Kingston will make grants to individuals or groups between the ages of 5 and 19 who live or study in the Royal Borough. The grants will be to support projects that will benefit the community or to encourage individual talents and skills.

The application process will be as easy as possible. But we do know that some young people will be able to ask adults to help them, and others may have to, or want to, go it alone. So where appropriate we are going to match up applicants with students at the University who will be able to give support. Their help may enable an applicant to turn a general aspiration into a project application, then carry through the project itself.

The members of the grants panel will themselves be aged 14 to 19, and will be trained in the task. At the end of the process the young people will be expected to report back to the panel on their projects using any media they like - performance, photos, webcasts etc.

We can't actually invite applications to Young Kingston until we have raised some funds. So we are planning a launch later in the year and will be opening for business after the summer holidays.

It's all very exciting and I can't wait to get it on its feet. I've had a lot of generous help from a steering group and from Upward Curve, a local PR company. All will be revealed eventually .....

The Penny School Gallery is housed in a Victorian school on the Richmond Road, and it is currently hosting an exhibition called 'Home' by Cally Trench and Nick Trench. They are brother and sister and both painters, but in very different styles.

Here we are in front of one of Nick's bold pieces - from left, Nick Trench, Cally Trench, me and Rosemary Williams (the Director of the Gallery)

In contrast, Cally's work is very precise. She creates large maps, reminiscent of Google Earth aerial photographs, but they are sometimes hiding secrets.  Some of us sat down and enjoyed playing a game she had invented - a kind of suburban murder-your-neighbour variant on ludo. The game involved us in the mystery of her work, which is ostensibly about ordinary lives, but hints at some of the hidden dramas.

Cally Trench's game with a glimpse of some of her paintings behind

Anyone under the age of 30 who went to primary school in the borough will remember the chip pan fire. This was a very dramatic demonstration given by the Fire Brigade to Year 6 pupils.

This year it was (sadly) replaced, but the new activity was just as entertaining and educational.

The dangers in the kitchen

Someone has spotted that the television is on fire!

We are fortunate to have a theme park on our doorstep that is closed during winter months. Chessington World of Adventures has hosted the Junior Citizenship event for 20 years now.

The main underlying theme is keeping safe. The children are put into small groups and then go round ten different activities. These are set up by the Council, Police, Fire Brigade, Transport for London and Primary Care Trust - all are fun and make good use of the park's spaces.

I've been to watch this before and I particularly enjoy observing one activity. The children are repeatedly told not to talk to anyone unless they are wearing a uniform or florescent jacket. And yet when a woman tries to lure them down a path behind some bushes they all follow her! This is, of course, promptly followed by a reminder from the police about stranger danger.

Junior Citizenship is run over two weeks with ten groups each morning and afternoon. But in spite of the fact that each activity or demonstration is repeated 200 times the staff came over as fresh and enthusiastic. Well done to all of them!

Cobham Band put on a very enjoyable concert on Saturday evening - and all the proceeds (around £600) were donated to the charity appeal. So I want to say a very big thank you to them.

The programme was just right - music from around the UK, with many familiar tunes set to interesting arrangements. Many thanks to David Ruel, their Musical Director, for putting it together.

Kingston College had also offered the use of the Arthur Cotterell Theatre and were pleased to hear a band of this size playing there. The sound was very clear and worked well in this studio theatre space.

Photo by Michael Ball

Once again we welcomed new British citizens on Saturday as they took their oath of allegiance.

St Raphael's Church in Surbiton is an imposing listed building facing the river on the Portsmouth Road. It is the home of a thriving Roman Catholic community, with around 600 people attending Mass each Sunday.

And they know how to enjoy themselves, so yesterday evening Ian and I found ourselves on Ravens Ait sharing in their fundraising dinner dance.

We don't get to as many formal dinners as you might imagine, and this was particularly welcome because of the friendly atmosphere and good humour.

Thus concluded a day that took us through Jewish and Muslim cultures and ended with the Christians.

As part of the 'Faith in Civic Life' initiative we arranged a civic visit to Kingston Mosque to coincide with Friday Prayers.

A good number of people attended, between them representing the civic life of the borough and all the main faith groups. Here are just a few of the early arrivals ...

You'll have to excuse two of my associate chaplains, Imam Shahid Hussain and Rabbi Danny Rich, who remained deep in conversation behind me while the photo was being taken!

We were all made very welcome indeed. We were shown round, and all our questions answered. Then we were invited to sit in at the back of the prayer rooms, facing Mecca - men in the main room downstairs and women upstairs. The sermon and prayers were relayed from the main prayer room to the women's room.

The service itself was quite simple - a fairly short address, then a call to prayer followed by communal prayers. People made their own personal prayers before or after the service.

I have been very heartened by the two events so far - this one and the service in the Kingston Synagogue last week. The Christian Civice Service on 18th Feb will also be rather different this year, when we hope to welcome members of other faiths.

Tu B'Shevet is the start of spring and is marked by planting a tree.

Traditionally the fruit from all trees older than four years by this date could be eaten, but were also subject to tithes for the support of the rabbis and the poor. 

Today we planted an apple tree at one of the residential homes, Murray House, and it was dedicated to friends and families of the residents.

Afterwards we ate a variety of fruit, including dates and pomegranates.

I decided to get out the ceremonial spade that is normally kept in the Guildhall. It was presented to the Borough in 1902 when two oaks were planted by the Mayor in Canbury Gardens to mark the coronation of Edward VII.

Charlotte's Web is a super film with some astonishing animation - and I really enjoyed it even though I hadn't got the excuse of accompanying children.

You may have noticed that the film isn't being released until 9th Feb. So we were very fortunate to be offered a preview as a charity performance at the Rotunda yesterday. Before the film there was a kid's disco next door in Oceana, then Ben and Jerry's icecream.

We raised hundreds of pounds for my charity, so I'm very grateful to the Odeon at the Rotunda and Oceana for their generosity.

We've all got stories about the impact of the mild winter.

Up until now mine was about the bumblebee I saw a couple of weeks ago on the hebe that was still in flower from last year.

But today I caught this rose which has just come into flower in my garden.

I've just added a 'Translate into Korean' link on the right. It uses the Google Translate system.

Be patient - it is rather slow.

Now I'd be really grateful if any Korean readers could tell me whether this is a good idea ....