Farnham Welcomes a New Town Mayor
Deputy Mayor, Town Mayor & Mayoress of Farnham
On Thursday 13th May, Councillor Mr John Ward was elected as the Mayor of Farnham for the year 2010/11.
Councillor Mrs Jill Hargreaves will support Councillor Ward as Deputy Mayor.
The Council Chamber at the Council Offices in South Street was the venue for Councillor Ward's civic reception, supported by family and family friends who joined him from as far afield as America.
After the inaugural ceremony, Councillor Ward greeted the audience with a welcoming speech:
Fellow Councillors, Ladies and Gentlemen; firstly I must thank you for the honour you have bestowed on me by electing me to be the Mayor of this fantastic town. It has a long and interesting history with a character that I hope to be instrumental in preserving and I am deeply touched that two Past-Mayors from different sides of the political spectrum should be prepared to propose and second me for this prestigious office.
I have enjoyed my time as Deputy Mayor and am really looking forward to my year in the Mayoral Office, supported by a dedicated team of Councillors and Officers, although it is not without a little trepidation as my immediate predecessor is what can best be described as “a hard act to follow”. I trust that I shall be sensible enough not to try to compete, but to do things a little differently, still I sincerely hope to the satisfaction of the people of Farnham. I am particularly interested in doing what I can to help disadvantaged young people and so during my year I hope to visit and help as many schools and voluntary organisations as possible
I have often been asked, “what will be the theme of your year?”, and this has given me something to think about. Coming from an Army family, I certainly intend to continue building on our current good relationship with the local Forces, but the thing that I have found to be fundamental, wherever I have been, is good Communication. This, when efficiently managed, can strengthen bonds of friendship and also avert misunderstandings, which can often lead to unforeseen difficulties. I am therefore adopting Communication as my main theme. Much has been done by the Council recently in improving its communications with the public but this is a two-way street and I would encourage anyone with ideas for making Farnham a better place to get in touch with us as, although our budget and actual powers are limited, we may often be able to help in other ways.
This theme leads conveniently on to my choice of Mayor’s Charity, a very difficult decision, as there are so many worthy causes, from big national institutions to lesser know, but equally important, local schools and charities. Most of us take for granted the ability to speak and hence communicate with other people other but with my passion for good communications comes a great awareness and sympathy for those, especially young people, who find great difficulty speaking or cannot communicate verbally at all. My daughter works in America teaching autistic children and this has been instrumental in focussing my mind on youngsters like this, having seen the great joy on their faces when they manage to master just one word. I very much wanted my charity to be a smaller Farnham-based one and so have decided to try to raise funds to buy an item called an item called a PROXTALKER for the Ridgeway Community School. This is a portable, programmable, electronic tool, designed by a man with an autistic son, that utilises a special interchangeable pictorial keypad to help children to verbalise so that they can begin to communicate. It has proved very successful in the USA and will, I am sure, be of equal benefit here.
Ladies & Gentlemen, I am indebted to my fellow Councillors for electing me to this Office and very grateful to you all for coming to share this occasion with us. Gillian and I promise to work hard and do our very best to make you proud of us but much more importantly make you even prouder to be a part of this great Town of Farnham. Again, thank you all very much.
One of Councillor Ward's first Farnham Town Council engagements as Mayor will be to launch the series of Music in the Meadow concerts, which begin on 13th June in Gostrey Meadow.
