Scott Trickett - Final Mayoral speech

16th May 2012

Please find below a the transcript of my final Mayoral Speech, this year has truly been one I have totally enjoyed, embraced and one I will never forget....

Final Mayor Speech

Introduction and thanks

First of all may I say Amy and I have had a year we will never forget, Not only have we had our fantastic new born son Nicholas but we have had a year that will stay in our memories for the rest of our lives.

Year

Council Year

This has been challenging to say the least. There have been some very passionate meetings with strong opposing views. Whilst giving my opinion when it mattered, I felt I also chaired with neutrality, fairness and strength. I sincerely hope all you Cllrs feel I did this.

Mayoral Year

Since May Amy and I have done some absolutely extraordinary things;

Here are a few of the highlights

·         Opened the Mytholmroyd Gala with Black l Lace and Eric Pollard – led the conga round the field in Mytholmroyd – that was definitely a unique experience and probably will never be repeated

·         Opened the arts festival with the World’s strongest lady Betty Brawn – she was definitely not to be messed with

·         Vintage car rally

·         Starting fireworks in Hebden Bridge

·         Naming a bridge in Warstein -'Hebden Bridge'  - Many of you know I speak German so my speech was in German – when the press were interviewing me – I exclaimed how proud I was that when I was a student in Germany in 1989, my favourite Beer was coincidentally Warsteiner Pils – and now I am standing on a bridge in Warstein drinking the stuff with the Mayor of Warstein – I said ‘ Es gibt ein Gott im Himmel’ – they printed the full quote the next day in the local press
–  first ever fluent German speaking Mayor certainly initially surprised our friends in Warstein

·         Other events included Christmas lights and the first lighting of lights in Mytholmroyd for years and fabulous local carol services

·         Yorkshire day, with all the Mayors of Yorkshire region

·         Opened newly refurbished Cragg Park – a great honour in my home ward

·         Opened the first new business park in our area in years Cragg Country Business Park together with our MP Craig Whitaker – again a massive honour for the area and in my home ward

·         Sat next to Kay Mellor during the Picture House Gala night Fanny and Elvis – a major event in Hebden Bridge calendar

·         Represented the Council at the war memorials – this was very moving and an enormous honour

·         Helped open and made speech at newly refurbished Memorial garden – a truly wonderful asset for Mytholmroyd

• The memorial was originally opened in July 1922 by a local man who had been badly injured in the Somme, his name was Gilbert Hartley.
  The unveiling itself was carried out by Mrs Barbera Jeffries HIS DAUGHTER - fantastic moment

·         Over 20 school assemblies – including  Calder high and our first ever school twinning skype meeting between Hebden Royd Primary and Johannes Grundschule in Warstein. Rebekah Taylor or MEP and David Parry form our international group also  agreed to help with that. Over in Warstein along with the children will be the Mayor of Warstein Manfred Goedde and other Councillors for Stadtrat Warstein. I am absolutely elated over this event

o   This was my Mayoral theme and I have promised to the schools that this activity will continue from my side – I will also be linking the high school to the biggest exporter in our region Cummins turbo Technologies

o   I will also continue forging the business links with our schools – particularly the high school

·         In summary we have been invited and involved with well over 100 events – the whole year has been truly amazing and a real privilege

Mayors Charity

As a young person I had an opportunity supported by a local fund. this opportunity led to his current professional life in export sales, I am now is fluent in German and have worked  in Europe for over 20 years to generate valuable export business. My simple wish as Mayor this year is to enable as many young people in our area the same opportunity that I had and give them inspiration to drive for the wider world and to create more educational and business links, this will of course be good for the youngsters personal growth and local business accordingly.

The charity is to establish a fund to ensure young people with financial restrictions have the ability to engage in twin town activities with our twin town’s in St Pol, France and Warstein, Germany. It will also actively encourage School Twinning. I am also trying to engage children with International business and am help setting up links to encourage this eg Concentrix and Cummins Turbo Technologies. This is also why we are doing school assemblies to spread the benefits of international business

So far I have raised nearly £3000 – with some promised business donations still to come

We have had excellent links with our twin towns for many years and whilst benefits have been gained for many, a good number of enthusiastic young people with financial restrictions sadly cannot benefit. – I have worked very closely with the international group and as a fluent German speaking International business person , will continue in the future – I have already committed to the High school to further enhance business links on this basis.

The Skype meeting as mentioned earlier is part of the process to bring our schools closer together

Past Mayors

During my year I felt it was also really important to recognise the work of past Mayors

It’s absolutely fitting that my last gesture was to present Harry with the badge for Betty Ward – she was the first Mayor I experienced at first hand as a Councillor and too be honest I gained total respect for her ‘presence’ – let’s hope Betty knows  we are honouring her tonight

Going back to my experience again in May last year when I was taking over from Robin. I reflected on his year in my speech and what a great job he and Catherine did. During the speech I went to great lengths to congratulate him on the fabulous job and it really came home the enormous amount of work that had been done eg Bridge 500 celebrations. I then simply shook his hand patted him on the back and off he trotted.... This felt wrong to be honest

Therefore as the months went on I decided I had to put right that wrong and past Mayors needed a symbol / token that can be shown to the grandchildren etc. So as part of my Mayoral year I felt we had to put this wrong right and  present our past Mayors with a token of appreciation from us all for the enormous efforts that have been put into our community.

Close

All in all, from Council perspective this year has been challenging but I think I have led firmly and with authority and fairness and I do hope you agree Cllrs that I have chaired well. I have been tough at times but it was for a reason.

I pledge to continue the school twinning and school international links that have already been established. I am also still working on creating international business links with Calder High and the areas largest manufacturing exporter

From the Civic side Amy and I have thrown own heart and soul into the role and we have tried to serve our community to the best of our ability.

Thank you

Cllr Scott Trickett

Mayor of Hebden Royd Town Council 2011/2012

The Craggs - opening of business park

Saturday 5th May

I was absolutely delighted to be invited to help with the opening of 'The Craggs' business park in Cragg Vale.

This development is on the old site of the Turkey Lodge in Cragg Vale
The site itself consisted of several derelict chicken sheds that have for fallen into ever more disrepair in the last decade or so.

Chris Bingham  and Thornber Properties have joined together to truly transform the site through significant investment in it's redevelopment.

As stressed in my speech during the opening I highlighted that fact that this local family had invested significantly over many decades into the local infrastructure of our local area. Our area would simply be very different without that investment and literally 100's of jobs have been created in the process. I extend total gratitude that so much effort and pride has been places in our area. During the opening we also had the privilege of the attendance of our own MP Craig Whitaker

The other investments in our area of Cragg Vale of this businesses have been an overwhelming success due to two factors. Firstly - the special location which encourages business 'inspiration' and secondly the absolute dedication to perfection on the part of Thornber Properties and 'The Cragg's in making this area a great place to work and do business

Please find below development plans for the site

There are already a number of businesses who are enjoying the wonderful and inspirational location of the Craggs. Current businesses include

Craggs Energy - providing fuel for local businesses and homes

Greenwood organics - Creating fabulous range of organic cosmetic products

Swim stars - a swimming pool with views to die for - offering swim lessons for young and old and a great location for a swim party

Great Community Moment

PC Ed Webb, Myself, Chris Bingham and Craig Whitaker MP

For me it was certainly one of the major highlights in my Mayoral year having the privilege to be involved with the first business park opening in our area for many years

And in Cragg Vale my home ward!!

Cllr Scott Trickett

Mayor of Hebden Royd

5th May 2012

Hebden Royd Primary School Skype meeting with Twin town school Johannes Grundschule in Allagen, Warstein

23rd April 2012

Part of my Mayoral theme is school twinning.

We had our very first inter primary school international 'skype' meeting in Hebden  Royd and as far as I am aware the first primary school link up internationally in Calderdale. I was totally elated to have an extremely important visitor - Rebecca Taylor MEP -our own Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and Humber she is local to Hebden Royd from todmorden and  I was delighted that we shared the same 'vision' for the future development of our young people and international links between our schools


Year five pupils from Hebden Royd C of E school held the conference call using Skype system to talk to pupils from Johannes Grundschule in our Twin twin of Warstein, Germany.

The German school has become twinned with Hebden Royd C of E as part of an initiative to promote greater links with the area’s twin towns of St Pol and Warstein – a campaign championed by myself as part  of my Mayoral year.

The school has been absolutely fabulous and we really shared the same vision for our youngsters. Head teacher Gretl Young said: “This link gives us such scope with what we can do with the children. We’ve got a year with this group before they go off to high school and hopefully they will make plenty of friends and connections.”

Miss Young said staff at the school were excited to be the first in Hebden Royd to form a link with a school in Warstein or St Pol and said they were going to take part in a project looking at the London Olympics with Johannesgrundschule, as well as having regular email contact and Skype calls.

Hopefully this is the first of many schools in our area forming links and this will have fantastic future benefits for the children and they may well end up having an international future.

Also present  were David Parry, president of the Hebden Bridge and District International Group, and Jo Eggleton, Calderdale Council’s Town Twinning Officer.

The event was well publicised in German press and we has great fun with the children making this initial link

Warstein Newspaper Article

Skype meeting in full flow at Hebden Royd

Warstein Newspaper article

Hebden Royd children during the Skype Meeting

In summary this was definitely one of the highlights of our year and I hope the children forge long and fruitful links overseas

Scott and Amy Trickett

Mayor of Hebden Royd Town Council

Calder High, assembly

Monday 23rd April

My Mayoral theme 2011/ 2012 it to encourage school twinning activities and to encourage youngsters to get involved with international links.

I speak fluent German and use my language  regularly in my daily paid job outside being Mayor. I travel overseas approximately every 2 weeks and help generate much needed export business for the UK. As a trained Engineer with a 2nd language capability I have done this successfully for over 20 years.

This year in my Community role as Mayor my simple wish was to influence as many young people as possible in the area as possible so that future links could be made. It is for this reason I did the school assembly to around 200 year 8 students, who are currently making life choices in the subjects they are taking.

Assisted by our International President David Parry, the assembly presentation was in 2 parts; first element was a brief overview of the function of the council and role of the Mayor. I reminded the student that Parish council work was voluntary. During the question session, one diligent student asked how did I pay my bills and feed the family. This led perfectly onto the second part of the presentation - working for a global business and the importance of international links.

In short I told them about our global export business at Cummins Turbo Technologies and how international links / languages  had not only helped me gain much needed export business but also enabled me to travel and see the world over the past 20 years in the process. I told them that during my school years I was involved in school twinning and this initiated my interest in languages and foreign links to helps me where I am today

David Parry also reminded the students the importance of getting involved with our existing twinning links so that connections/ friend could be formed and new languages be developed.

David Parry and myself during the presentations

The students all listened diligently and may questions were asked. Both myself and David were very pleased with the interest and we both said we would be very happy to give future assemblies in the coming future.


Cllr Scott Trickett
Mayor of Hebden Royd Town Council

Picture House Gala Evening - Fanny and Elvis

22nd April 2012

I had the enormous privilege of  representing Hebden Royd Town Council at the opening gala evening to celebrate the picture house brought back into community control in Hebden Bridge on the 1st April 2012.

I was also completely overwhelmed to sit through the entire production of the film with the respected Producer Kay Mellor and husband Tony Mellor. The film itself was Fanny and Elvis. During the film I sat next to Kay and Tony and too be honest the film was totally superb I laughed and cried throughout the whole film. My wife Amy sadly could not attend and it was so good I promptly bought the DVD . It was also a joy to reflect on elements in the film with Kay and her husband Tony.

I came to Hebden Royd around area 17 years ago and remember vividly the filming in the 'old square' in Hebden, when cars were allowed. I remember how nuch of a stir it caused at the time amoungst the locals. The Gala evening was super in that those memerories were revitalised and also it was great to spot local scenes throughout the film.

It was even better to know that they both shared my passion for our area during their filming in Hebden Royd and loved the friendliness and community spirit.Ssitting next to them and talking about the film was a real joy and one I will not forget for a very long time

Pictured together with Kay Mellor

During my speech to the audience I thanked Town council Clerk Jason Boom and the entire office staff, the picture house committee, the newly reformed friends of the picture house and of course the whole staff of the Picture House for all the support in the transition to Hebden Royd. Town council

Speech

Overall it was a super evening enjoyed by a packed theatre of over 500 guests and evryone I spoke to had a great evening.

Scott

Cllr Scott Trickett

Mayor of Hebden Royd Town Council

Mayor's Civic Dinner

   

21st April 2012

Amy and I had our Civic dinner on 21st April

We were delighted with over 70 guests at our annual civic dinner in support of the Mayor's charity

Amy and I before the dinner

We were honoured also at the Dignatary guests including

• Major Stan and Kay Hardy representing the Lieutenancy office of West Yorkshire
• MEP for Yorkshire and Humber Rebecca Taylor.
• Mayor of Calderdale, Nader Fekri 
• Mayor and consort of Ripponden, Cllr Brian and Geraldine Carter
• Chair and consort of Blackshaw Head, Cllr Dorothy Sutcliffe with Cllr Beaching
• Chair of Wadsworth, Cllr Mavis Ring

Entertainment

Our entertainment was form Vegas Elvis – AKA – Craig and Julie Simcock

to say they got the guests 'rocking' was an understatement - see the link below

View 2 Mayors and our very own Rev Canon entertaining the audience

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnndNiQ7RLk

Great Mayoral moves

During my speech I thanked Rebekah Cox for doing a fab job in organising the event and also also to Jackie Robinson for the superb catering

In my speech I gave some highlights of our year

Year Highlights

·         Opened the MYT Gala with Black l Lace and Eric Pollard – lead the conga round the field in Mytholmroyd – that was definitely a unque experience and probably will never be repeated

·    Opened the arts festival with the Worlds strongest lady Betty Brawn – she was definitely not to be messed with

·    Vintage car rally

·    Starting fireworks in Hebden Bridge

·    Naming a bridge in Warstein 'Hebden Bridge' - - Many of you know I speak German so my speech was in german – when the press were interviewing me – I exclaimed proud I was that when I was a student in Germany in 1989, my favourite Beer was coincidentally Warsteiner Pils – and now I am standing on a bridge in Warstein drinking the stuff with the Mayor of Warstein – I said ‘ Es gibt ein Gott im Himmel’ – they printed the full quote the next day –

·    Other events included Christmas lights and the first lighting of lights in MYT for years and fabulous local carol services

·    Yorkshire day, with all the Mayors of Yorkshire region

·    Opened newly refurbished Cragg Park

·    Represented the Council at the war memorials – this was very moving and an enormous honour

·    14 school assemblies – we have 2 on Monday – one at Calder high and our first ever school twinning skype meeting between Hebden Royd Primary and Johannes Grundschiule in Warstein. Rebekah Taylor or MEP and David Parry form our international group have kindly agreed to help with that. Over in Warstein along with the children will be the Mayor of Warstein Manfred Goedde and other Councillors for Stadtrat Warstein. I am absolutely elated over this event

·    All in all I thing we have done over a 100 things – the whole year has been truly amazing and a real privilege

Past Mayors

In my Speech I also gave a presentation to past Mayors. Past Mayors have not been honoured in the past and felt that in my year I had to put right that wrong.

I have long admired the work of past mayors. In the past 6 years in Council I have experienced at first hand the first of all Betty Ward – Betty sadly is no longer with us and Harry her husband is on holiday I will be presented something to Harry on 5^th May. After Betty came John Beacroft Mitchel, then Nader, then Susan Press, then of course Robin Dixon. It was during these time I really stated to appreciate what a hard job this was.

Going back to my experience again in May last year when I was taking over from Robin. I reflected on his year in my speech and what a great job he and Catherine did. During the speech I went to great lengths to congratulate him on the fabulous job and it realy came home the enormous amount of work that had been done eg Bridge 500 celebrations. I then simply shook his hand patted him on the back and off he trotted.... This felt wrong to be honest

Therefore as the months went on I decided I had to put right that wrong and past Mayors needed a symbol / token that can be shown to the grandchildren etc. So as part of events tonight I would like to present our past Mayors with a token of appreciation from us all for the enormous efforts that have been put into our community.

Past Mayors honoured during the evening were:

Janet McConachie 1983-1984

William Morris 1987 to 1988

Vera Badrick 1989 to 1990

Robert Ward 1992 to 1993

David Parry 1995 to 1996

Leslie Siddall 1996 to 1997

Paul Monahan 2000 to 2001

Cllr Christine Bampton-Smith 2002 to 2003

Leone Murty 2003 to 2004

Revd Cllr James Allison 2004 to 2005

Cllr Nader Fekri 2007 to 2008

Cllr John Beacroft Mitchell 2009 to 2010

Robin Dixon 2010 to 2011

David Parry

 Cllr Christine Bampton- Smith

 Mayor of Calderdale

and

past Hebden Royd Mayor Cllr Nader Fekri

Past Mayor I took over from;

 Robin Dixon

Past Mayors who were unable to attend will of course receive there badges on other occasions.

I was very proud indeed to honour all those past Mayors who have contributed so much to our community.

The whole evening was in fact one Amy and I will never forget and we raised around a great deal of money for our Mayor's charity 

Cllr Scott Trickett

Mayor of Hebden Royd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnndNiQ7RLk

Mayor's charity Lottery 2012

Tickets for this years Mayors Charity lottery go on sale this week.

Tickets are £1 each and can be purchased at the outlets listed at the outlets listed below and also the Town Hall.

Proceeds from the raffle will go to this years chosen charity which is a fund to ensure young people with financial restrictions have the ability to engage in twin town activities with our twin town’s in St Pol, France and Warstein, Germany. The fund will also help with School Twinning.

We have had excellent links with our twin towns for many years and whilst benefits have been gained for many, a good number of enthusiastic young people with financial restrictions sadly cannot benefit.

As a young person I had an opportunity supported by a local fund. this opportinity led to my current professional life in export sales, I am now is fluent in German and have worked  in Europe for over 20 years to generate valuable export business. My simple wish as Mayor this year is to enable as many young people in our area the same opportunity that I had and give them inspiration to drive for the wider world and to create more educational and business links, this will of course be good for the youngsters personnal growth and local business accordingly.

I am absolutely delighted with the responses from local business right across our whole area. The support for this Community initiative has been truly wonderful. All the businesses involved  showed  the true spirit of community involvement and must be applauded. We are so lucky in our area to have such a deep rooted community base and involvement This involement without question makes Hebden Royd such a great place to live and helps attract visitors to our fantastic area.

I would like to pay particular thanks to our headline donation of a brand new IPad from Craggs Energy. I was totally elated to receive such a donation and this should realy help the sale of tickets along with the other prizes. Chris Bingham and business associates have worked very hard in the community involvement in my time during Mayor and I cannot thank them enough. Craggs Energy is a local Heating oil and fuel supplier based in Cragg Vale, supplying homes and businesses across our region with fuel. 

Headline Prize:  New Apple iPad 

Kindly donated by Chris Bingham Craggs Energy

Chris Bingham, Craggs Energy and myself with the headline Prize

Plus over 20 Other Fabulous Prizes

Overnight Stay for 2 with Dinner and Bottle of Wine – the Dusty Miller

Meal for 2 - The Robin Hood, Cragg Vale

£50 Food Hamper - COOP

Case of Beer - Little Valley Brewery

MOT – Star Garage

Meal for Two – Moyles Restaurant, Hebden Bridge

Meal for Two – Olive Branch, Hebden Bridge 

Overnight stay in delux room in the White Lion

Meal for two at Bridge Balti - Sowerby Bridge

Trim & Blow Dry – Hair & There, Hebden Bridge

4 Tickets to the Cinema – Hebden Bridge Picture House

Back, Neck & Shoulder Massage – The Beauty Bank, Mytholmroyd

Gift Voucher – Flying Saucers, Hebden Bridge

Book Voucher – The Book Case, Hebden Bridge

CD – The Old Treehouse, Hebden Bridge

Chocolate / truffle selction – Pennine Wine & Cheese, Hebden Bridge

Chocolates – Something Sweet

Food Hamper - William Holt

Meat Selection - David Woodhead butchers

Champagne, chocoatles, Wine and Warsteiner Beer - Mayor

Overall I am totally elated at all our prizes and the lottery to help youngsters in our area should benefit immensely

Prize giving shortly after the draw,

iPad won by Mrs Welsh from Calder High School

2nd price won by Yuan Li Cummins Turbo Technologies

Scott

Cllr Scott Trickett

Mayor of Hebden Royd

Burnley Road Academy show - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

26th March 2012

Myself and my daughter Emily attended Burnley Road Academy show of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at St. Michael's Church Hall in Mytholmroyd.

Emily and myself had a wonderful time and we both thought the show was great. Clearly a lot of work had gone into the performance by the children and staff to make the evening a complete success.

It was funny, very entertaining and the singing and performances from groups and individuals were absolutely superb.

The story was a twist on the 'traditional' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in that the 'Dwarfs' were in fact jockeys and the story was about them loosing all there money and ultimately winning.

I was really quite taken back at the professionalism and confidence of the youngsters. They also looked like they were thoroughly enjoying participating. That is what these shows are all  about !!!

Congratulations again for a great show and we look forward to the next production from Burnley Road Academy !!. Thank to  the pupils and the staff for inviting us.

We had a great evening.

Scott and Emily

Cllr Scott Trickett

Mayor of Hebden Royd Town Council


 

Calderdale Theatre School - Theatre Night

24th March 2012

Once again I was privileged to be invited to a wonderful evening of entertainment from young Performers in our area.

The Calderdale Theatre School held two productions of 'Cuba' and the 'The Queen must Die'.

The performances were by young people between 11 and 16 and were truly fantastic.

The first show, Cuba, was set in the 50's at the height of the Cuban Crisis and the performers really gave realism to the fear at the time of that conflict. The performance gave a refection  of the fear at the time and wrapped with some humour it was a super show, well done to all the Actors.

The Queen Must Die was set at the time of the Queens 50th Jubilee. The performers had the audience in stitches with the antics of an anti Monarch group and girls who planned to 'behead' a paper mache statue of the queen. Of course in the end they all came to appreciate the Queen and the play fits well with this years celebration of the Queen's 60 years serving Great Britain.

 Like many of the audience I was in tears with laughter at the excellent comedy the young Actors produced. Well done once again to all those involved in the excellent performance !!.

Highly recommended


Scott Trickett

24th March  2012

School Council in Hebden Royd

Wednesday 1st February 2012

On Wednesday 1^st February, Hebden Royd Town Council held its annual meeting of the School Council. This is an important date in the diary when children who sit on their own school council have the opportunity to come and take part in a real council meeting held in the impressive Council Chamber at the Town Hall

Over 20 children from school councils at Cragg Vale School, Stubbings School, Central Street School, Hebden Royd School, Riverside School, Burnley Road Academy and Scout Road Academy attended the meeting.

I welcomed the children with a talk about what the Town Council does and the role of the Mayor.

The children were then invited to tell the Mayor what they liked and disliked about the town. The children were impressed with the new skate park, Children designed lights in Mytholmroyd and the newly renovated park at Cragg Vale, and the annual Duck Race was amongst their favourite events. However, they were concerned with the amount of litter in the towns and the speed of cars and dangerous parking outside schools. Dog Fouling was also a common complaint

Hebden Royd Town Council has noted these concerns and will be working with partners and schools  to try and solve these issues.

Each School has it’s own council whereby the elected children withing each year group can debate and decide on matters within their own schools. The Parish School’s council is whereby all the schools come together. This process  is a valuable experience for children and  allows them to have a real say in their community. It also allows Hebden Royd Town Council to hear the voice of these extremely important younger members of of community and take actions to make their lives that bit better.

Full Attendance

Burnley Road, Central Street, Cragg Vale, Hebden Royd, Riverside, Scout Road, Stubbings

All 7 Primary Acadamies and Schools in Hebden Royd

This year we attended several school assemblies at all of the schools to teach children the workings of the local Parish Council and to encourage the children themselves how they can make a real difference to their own lives and surroundings. The individual school councils generate real passion within each school and when they come to the Parish School’s Council at the town hall this energy can be felt. This is the first time for a number of years that all the schools have participated and it was tremendous to see the enthusiasm the children had in the meeting.

Chairing this meeting I was supported by Emma Housman as acting Clerk and we were both really impressed at the capabilities of our young people and it will certainly remain with me as one of the highlights of my Mayoral year, I am very proud indeed and would like to congratulate all the children who participated.


Scott Trickett
2nd February 2012

Royal British Legion - Hebden Bridge and District 90th Birthday

Saturday 28th January 2012

We were delighted to be invited to attend the 90th Birthday celebration of the Hebden Bridge and District Royal British Legion on Saturday 28th January in St. Michaels Chrich hall.

Nationally The Royal British Legion was formed over 90 years ago in 1921, bringing together four National Organisations of ex-Service men that had established themselves after the Great War of 1914-1918.

The main purpose of the Legion was  to care for those who had suffered as a result of service in the Armed Forces in the Great War of 1914 to 1918. today it cares for Service personnel in past and current conflicts

The wonderful work that the Royal British legion does has been highlighted nationally with the Military Wives Choir at the end of last year. Please click link to view.

Locally in Hebden Royd, the Hebden Bridge and District British Legion was also established, in fact on 19th January 1922. The Royal Briish Legion has been a foundation stone in our area ever since.


As current Mayor to Hebden Royd I was very proud to not only participate in the unveiling of our restored solder during Remembrance Sunday in November 2011, but also be invited to speak at the 90th Birthday celebration this Saturday 28th January 2012. There was also a celebratory service Sunday 22nd and as I was on an overseas business trip unfortunatley could not attend the ealier service. This was well supported by our  Deputy Mayor Cllr Dave Young.

Our own Mayor of Calderdale Cllr Nader Fekri and Mayoress Helen Sylvester also attended this special celebration on 28th January. Mytholmroyd Cllr Christine Bampton Smith attended also proudly on behalf of Hebden Royd Town Council.

During my opening remarks I exclaimed how proud we all are to have the Legion present in our own area to ensure that not only Remembrance is maintained year on year but also valuable monies are raised for Servicemen and women for past and current conflicts.

In 2011 our local Legion raised a staggering £7500. Our local volunteers do not just operate around Poppy appeal but throughout the year. Many thanks to for their tremendous hard work to raise these monies.

Proud Mayors, Cllrs and British  British Legion President and Chairman

On behalf of Hebden Royd Town Council and of course the Hebden Bridge and District Royal British Legion we would encourage volunteers to help carry on this essential institution in our area. Please contact Maurice  at majo14@talktalk.net

Scott Trickett

 

Christmas lights designed by school children - Shining Bright

December 2011

MYTHOLMROYD IS SHINING BRIGHT

The past 2 years have seen a very special challenge for our local school children, to design a Christmas light which would help Mytholmroyd to shine bright throughout the festive season.

This year there were many entries from the boys and girls from Primary schools in Cragg Vale, Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd, with many showing considerable artistic flair for their age . On the day of judging the Councillors had their work cut out as all the enties were wonderful and joy for the judges to look at them all. After much deliberation the winners for 2011 were picked.

Thus year's winners were Abbie Chambers of Burnley Road Academy with her Christmas Stocking Design, Ruby Fisher of Cragg Vale Junior & Infant School who designed a lovely Christmas Pudding and Finn Sierevogel Scout Road Academy with a very creative Rudolf dresses as Father Christmas.

Fabulous Designs

At the prize giving I was accompanied by Councillor Bampton Smith and Emma Housman, during my remarks I exclaimed how proud we all were in the children's designs and that their lights would be on show fo many many years. The children and their parents were obviously very proud.

Proud winners

The project has been a great success for Hebden Royd the past 2 years and is set to continue to the future, special thanks to all of the schools involved and also Emma Housman.

Next year we may hopefully see even more enties as this has really captured the hearts an minds of our local children. It is a great opportunity for the children to get involved with their area and design something that may be seen for generations.

Scott