Mayoral Viewpoint: Councillor Mike Booth
It is my pleasure to accept the mayoral duty for this coming year and I am already enjoying it immensely! Thank you to all for this privilege and I would like to say a big congratulations to my predecessor, Terry Hurn, for the fantastic example he set this past year. Terry and his wife, Jean Hurn, raised an admirable amount of money for their chosen, very worthy charities and he has set some big shoes to fill this year.
We kickstarted the year with an invitation to the Great Harwood Agricultural Show and the Accrington Food and Drink Festival this past week, both of which proved great successes.
Well done to all the people involved in the organisation of the Great Harwood Agricultural Show on Bank Holiday Monday, who put on another fantastic show and were undoubtedly a shining example of not letting a bit of challenging weather dampen a day! This was our first engagement as the Mayor and Mayoress of Hyndburn and we thoroughly enjoyed the event in our wellies. It was brilliant to see that the mud didn’t stop the crowds from showing up and it was a good day for dogs, proved well by my loyal companion, Mr Darcy.
There were some brilliant stalls, including local traders, charities, organisations, and community groups. We learnt a lot more about the charity-funded Air Ambulance Service, along with chatting to other voluntary organisations doing brilliant work to tackle health issues, such as Fibromyalgia. I also got a chance to talk to the leader of the Police Cadet Force, who was organising security and mentioned the ACT Street Angels (we are always looking for new volunteers!). Of course, there was a range of locally produced goods, including handmade jewellery, and the Mayoress was especially pleased to come away from one stall with some amber earrings.
It was another spectacular year for the Accrington Food and Drink festival, which was the next engagement I had the pleasure of being invited to. I might be biased, but I thought this was the best one ever! There was plenty of activities going on throughout the day and so many people ventured to Accrington Town Centre for the event – I know the stallholders were happy to see so many faces. Thank you to the Amazing Accrington team for creating this fabulous event and once more putting our food and drink festival out into the wider media. It keeps on getting better and better, and Accrington’s Food and Drink festival is most certainly on the map in Lancashire for events to go to in June.
I would like to end by revealing the Mayoress and I’s chosen charities for this year, all of which are brilliant and well-worthy causes that I know many will come together to help us support them over the next year. The Mayoress and I will be fundraising for a variety of local causes, including: Accrington Stanley Women’s FC, Hyndburn Crossroads, Carers Link, East Lancashire Hospice, ACT Street Angels, and the MacMillan nurses. It is important to us that the charities this year focus on young people, people with disabilities, and people who contribute to the well-being of the people of Hyndburn, so it is our pleasure to support these charities in every way that we can.