High Sherriff's visit and more...

On the 13th July we were privileged to have a visit from the High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire, Richard Barnwell.
Richard was greeted by some of our Town Councillor's and we had a discussion of how our Council works and the projects we have on the table, it was great to get the benefit of Richard's many years of Council experience on some of the projects. Then we went across to the Victorian Walled Garden and met with the voluntary team there and the Community support workers who are doing their reparation there. It really is worth a visit there, a most peaceful, beautiful place to visit. After that we went to the Tesco in Ramsey which is the first zero carbon store in the country and had a tour round explaining how it all works. We moved on then to the Ashbeech School who were celebrating sports day, the Head teacher gave us a tour of the school and grounds , it really is a free thinking school, one we are very proud of. On our way back to the Council offices we had a tour round Ramsey and looked at some of the more challenging areas in Town.

On 14th July we had a Full Council meeting and it was fantastic to have 14 members of the public visit. Good progress is being made.
On the 20th July, I was elected as the Chairman of the Ramsey Christmas Lights committee, a very exciting project, switch on day is 26th November.
On the 21st July, I was at the First Hunts post sports awards, great to be celebrating excellence in sport.
On the evening of the 22nd July, I attended the Fenland Chairman's reception at the Boat house in Wisbech, lovely building to visit.
On the 24th July, I was at the Royal British Legion 90th Anniversary service in St Thomas a Beckett church in Ramsey, a very moving service. That evening I attended a meeting for the KITE youth club and we set the wheels in motion for next terms events.
On the 25th July, I attended a meeting at the Town Council for the Lottery project, Getting People Involved. I am part of the team going to hear the next steps.
On the 28th July, I attended the next steps meeting reference the million pound grant we have coming to Ramsey. If your interested in Getting Involved please contact me and we will get the ball rolling. That night we had our second Parish Plan meeting and have put a structure together to start working from. We also met with the AH&L working party that evening.
On the 29th July, we attended the High Sheriff's reception in Wisbech, lovely setting and great company.
On the 1st August we had our first Town Council working party for Communication, good progress made. After that we had a working party finance meeting.
On the 3rd August, I was at the Great Fen project handing out Getting People Involved leaflets, great afternoon out for the children.
On Thursday 4th August, in the downpour, I attended the Camjam at the Huntingdon race course. Fantastic to see so many events, so many young people(approx 1,800 of them) some from other Countries enjoying this event. It has taken four years to put together, I am not surprised. It was run very smoothly.
On Friday 5th August, I had a tour of the new Ramsey Library. Opens on 16th August.
I won't leave it so long to communicate next time...

Down to business

On Monday I attended a meeting reference the Canberra Court project with County Cllr Pete Reeve and District Cllr Ian Curtis, Muir housing and the police and I am pleased to say good progress is being made.
That evening we had a finance working party meeting and swiftly got through our business.
On Thursday evening I attended the award ceremony for Huntingdon Regional College, a lovely evening and great to be sharing in their success with them.
On Saturday I was at The Camp with the Ramsey Christmas Lights team, we achieved cleaning all the lights, testing all the light bulbs and making everything work ready for November, this was topped of with a BBQ for the workers, the children who came along were really well behaved and worked very hard cleaning the lights. Our AGM is on Wednesday 20th July.
On Sunday I attended the Seafarers outdoor service followed by an indoor service, this was really moving. After that I attended the fundraising lunch held by Cllr Jeff Dutton the Chairman of HDC at the Darjeeling restaurant and over £700 was raised.
On Sunday evening I went to the 2nd meeting of KITE (kids in their element)and was pleased with the enthusiasm and commitment of the team on board.
Looking forward to Wednesday for our visit by the High Sherriff...

Busy weekend for the Mayor

On Friday evening, I went to the Royal Society of ST George at the picturesque Buckden Towers in Buckden. I would recommend everyone joining this group.
On Saturday I went to Wood Green Animal Sanctuary, we had some very informative talks about the safety of approaching dogs and then a talk about rabbits, did you know they are the most abused small animal. Wood Green have three sanctuaries and make a really good family day out.
On Saturday evening I was a guest of Colonel Kelly from RAF Alconbury to celebrate Independence Day and in Col Kelly's words our Interdependence, we had a lovely spread of burgers, and BBQ chicken. I met some very interesting Airforce employees and we then went across to the massive Firework display. I have never seen such a great display it lasted over twenty minutes.
On Sunday I opened the Ramsey Italian Market(inItalian) a good turn out and fabulous items to buy. I then went to the Civic Service for the Mayor of Huntingdon, great service, good songs, it's been a while since I have sung every verse of Onward Christian Soldiers! After that I then went to the Mereside Strawberry Fayre, spent a fortune but had a lovely time a fab family day out, I would recommend you visiting for next year.
Now looking forward to what this week brings....

Great opportunities

I feel very privileged to be in the role of Mayor of Ramsey, I am meeting so many interesting peole and visiting some beautiful places.
Since my last blog I attended the 800th proclamation of the Midsummer Fair, we paraded through the fair and then threw pennies for the children to catch, some children wore bike helmets, clearly they have been before! We were then able to have a go on some of the rides, I went on my first and last ever Ghost ride!!!! I think the Carosel is much more my style! i met a fairground owner who used to come to Ramsey years ago and we are now trying to find some space for them to return this month.
Ramsey Christmas Lights had a meeting and we have planned a community event for Saturday 9th July Free BBQ and we clean and test the lights. If you would like to be part of the team that supports this project then please let me know.
On Sunday Peter Reeve and I attended the Ely Civic reception, a beautiful church and a very inclusive service, it was a very hot day so plenty of water being drunk.
That evening I was selected to be the Vice Chairman of the KITE youth club (Kids in Their Element) I am looking forward to working with the team to keep the kids entertained.
I would like to thank cllr Ian Walker, Chairman of the Rotary club for asking me to hand the medals out to the 43 children who ran in the Fun run for the Spinning Infants School.
I throughly enjoyed dressing up as a Molly dancer on Wednesday, it was great seeing both the Junior and Ashbeach School dancing together, I think they found it amusing when the Mayor joined in the dancing!! They had workshops on for the day where they coulees learn to play the accordion, listen to fables and learn about the Saxon times. Everybody enjoyed the Clowns, so funny with their buckets of water.
Tonight Pete and I went to the Royal Society of ST George in Buckden Towers, Buckden Cambs. A beautiful setting and it was goog to catch up with the other Mayor's and Chairman.
Lots on this weekend will let you know how I get on in my next blog.

Exciting Times

It's been a busy few weeks, I have attended the Installation of the Mayor ceremony at Peterborough Cathedral for Cllr Paula Thacker MBE. I attended the Civic forum briefing for forces in Cambridge which was very informative,
I had a very informative and enjoyable day at RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth which had a demonstration from the drug and bomb dogs. It's amazing what is happening on our doorstep that we are unaware of.
Last Thursday I went to dinner at Corpus Christi College for the Outgoing Mayor of Cambridge there were many guests including Lady Archer.
On Council business we are now in the process of putting the Parish Plan together and have agreed to pay for the Youth worker to continue in Ramsey. I have also attended my first steering group meeting for the million pound Lottery grant thats coming to Ramsey!!
I am now pleased to announce that the election of the Ramsey Youth Town Council will take place in September so watch this space.......

Things that need doing

I thought it might be interesting to give you an idea of how the Mayor of Ramsey spends her time. As you know I am new to the job and am beginning to get to grips with the variety of roles that it encompasses. What is gratifying and satisfying is the range of work that is required, and the very real practical help that I can provide for my constituents and the town itself, so here is a quick look at my recent diary.

I attended the Church Fete at Thomas a Beckett Church Saturday afternoon where I was one of more than 200 people that turned up to enjoy the day.

On Sunday I attended a Civic reception in St Ives on representing Ramsey with the Mayors consort Peter Reeve, a very impressive service, parade and do.

Abbey College, Ramsey

On Tuesday I was filmed by the BBC for the Sunday politics show (local) and visited the Student Representative body (SRB) at the Abbey College to discuss the Ramsey Youth Town Council. Wednesday I met with the Head Teacher Patsy Peres of the Ramsey Spinning Infants School to discuss the RYTC which was again well received. The elections will take place in September,

I visited local businesses in Ramsey to see how their businesses are getting on and what support they need from us in the town council; parking issues are coming up as a consistent theme it seems

I met with a local resident to discuss her problem of the allocation of school placements, I will be attending a hearing with her tomorrow.

Cambs.

I attended a meeting as a member of the Lottery Steering committee where we are discussing the £1 million Lottery grant Ramsey has received. On Thursday I am at a meeting with the local police at 9am, at 10am I am at the hearing ref the school placement at 2pm meeting the Highways manager to discuss speeding in Mereside and the cost of traffic calming and in the  evening I am chairing the Full Town Council meeting.

Canberra Court Street Surgery

Police, Councilors and Housing officers were pleased with the warm welcome and excellent response from the community of Canberra Court area in Ramsey. More than 50 residents attended the Canberra Court street surgery held on Saturday 4th June.

The 'engagement session' was attended by more than 50 local residents mainly from Canberra Court and also from the Avenue, St Mary's Close and Charles Close. Issues were put forward including transport problems, issues with dogs and with vandalism as well as excellent suggestions from local community members on how to tackle antisocial behavior and drug and alcohol related crime and disorder.

 
Key partners in creating access to solutions for the community who attended included :

Ramsey Neighborhood Police - Sgt Dave Savill
Muir Housing - Jan Kileen
Luminus Housing - Phil Rozier
'Ramsey back on track' residents Association - Alan McFadyn
The Mayor of Ramsey - Cllr Lisa Duffy
Huntingdonshire District Council - Cllr Ian Curtis
Cambridgeshire County Council - Cllr Pete Reeve

As Cllr Pete Reeve said,

"We have made excellent progress with this event. Residents seem less reluctant to speak with the police and have put forward many excellent ideas that will make a big difference to our community. I am really grateful to the officers for coming to our event  and engaging with this community. We will be taking forward the ideas and proposals that the residents have put forward to our team meeting on Thursday this week at which we will produce a costed action plan with key leaders for each improvement priority.

"It is vital that this community sees actions from the event as they will judge us not on our words but on our deeds and the outcomes. The local residents have taken a brave step forward in rebuilding trust with the police and council / housing association officers. It is now our turn to return that good will by achieving some positive outcomes that can be seen in the community.

"The police, Ian Curtis and I are already agreed that we will put forward Canberra Court and the avenue as the policing priority for the area, which will ensure extra resources are placed there. Other ideas that came from the day include installing security features such as fences and security doors and mending those that have been broken, upgrading the CCTV and bringing back the neighborhood warden on site.

"At the group meeting on Thursday we will be able to priorities the suggestions that have been made and identify funding for the suggestions. We will then go back to the community with our proposal for realistic outcomes that can be achieved within the financial framework that is available.

"We also got many good leads on drug dealers and businesses supplying alcohol to underage drinkers and it is my intention to stamp down hard on these activities."

Above all I would like to thank the residents who participated, it is only through their goodwill and support that we can make the progress that this local community deserves to have.