Agenda item

3.1             Councillor Jim Mason expressed the Council’s thanks to John Murphy for his service to the Borough. He explained that 12 months ago he had the privilege to propose John for the position of Mayor as he knew he would be excellent in the role. He felt John had been a fantastic Ambassador for the Borough and, together with his Mayoress Anne, he had attended over 60 functions and events despite having to take time out for a couple of months due to a nasty accident. At Council meetings, he had been a fair and impartial Chair who managed meetings expertly and with a quiet authority ensuring a smooth transaction of business. Councillor Mason expressed his sadness at John having lost his seat in the recent local elections and felt he would be missed, especially in his role as Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. He indicated that John had conducted his Mayoral Year with great dignity and decorum, had been very popular out in the community and was spoken of with great affection and warmth – he had great support from Anne and together they had worked tirelessly with compassion and commitment making everyone feel comfortable with their relaxed way. It had been a very successful Mayoral year full of great memories for the community as well as for John and Anne.

3.2             John Murphy thanked Councillor Jim Mason for his words of thanks and expressed what a privilege it had been to be Mayor; he had been thinking about his experiences over the past year and, setting aside Council meetings, he had been to many civic events with the Chain Gang and had attended too numerous engagements to count; however, there were some highlights he had to mention including commemorating the death of Her Majesty the Queen and subsequent Proclamation of the ascent of King Charles III – the Proclamation was a page of A4 with one full stop making it quite difficult to deliver. However, the main message of the year was how much really good work the citizens of Tewkesbury Borough did. John Murphy referred to Tom Cat which was a firm to which he had the privilege of awarding its second Queens Award for Industry – they produced tricycles for severely disabled children and customised them so they grew with them as they got older – they had even developed the business as they saw an opportunity for older people in Florida. In addition, the Butterfly Garden was run by an amazing person who had built up a charity to help people with learning difficulties/disabilities to do art, plays, look after plants etc. Both organisations had shown him what joy people were bringing to the Borough.

3.3             The Worshipful the Mayor, Councillor Yates, presented John Murphy with a Past Mayor’s Badge; Mrs Murphy presented the new Mayoress with the Mayoress’ Badge of Office; and the new Mayoress presented Mrs Murphy with a Past Mayoress’ Badge. Flowers were presented to the new Mayoress and to Mrs Murphy.