A Few Thoughts & Memoirs

A Few Thoughts & MemoirsA Few Thoughts & Mayor’s Memoirs

A Few Thoughts from a Town Planner

I recently attended the OBs’ Society Dinner which I very

much enjoyed. However,

instead of nursing a hangover, my poor brain is now trying to cope with composition following a Wright request to write something. As I’m not a regular attendee, I should perhaps first set out some context.

I am from the class of 1966. It seems so long ago it could almost be 1066. After leaving school I became a town planner. This was mainly in the southwest although nothing in the Bristol area. I make this point because nearly everyone has a grumble about town planners and I’d like to come to another dinner! I’ll come back to people’s perceptions about planners later on.

In the latter years of my career (I retired in 2011) I was working in the Oxfordshire area where, for example, Didcot and Wantage had been identified for major growth. The essence of planning is the right development in the right place at the right time. Without boring you or appearing to duck responsibility, I have to tell you that, as a planning officer, your objective assessment of where development might and should go gets modified by the local politicians for reasons that, how can I say, reflect local aspirations. That’s the reality so it’s no good complaining. I can also tell you, as a retiree, that I’m glad I don’t have to defend town planning any more.

So, to what people think of planners. Well, a doctor, an architect and a planner were debating whose was the oldest profession. The doctor pointed out that in the Bible God had taken a rib from Adam to make Eve which was clearly a surgical procedure. Oh no, said the architect, if you look in the Bible it says that order was created out of chaos and that’s what we architects do. Oh no, says the planner, it’s us. Who do you think created the chaos in the first place!

Nick Burroughs

(1960-1966)

The Mayor’s Memoirs

On Saturday, March 12th, I drove down from Kenilworth,

Warwickshire, to Cheltenham and picked up a lift from my old friend, Nick Burroughs, to attend the OBs’ Dinner. This was highly enjoyable, with a lovely atmosphere and we had a great evening with the Yates twins and other contemporaries of ours on our table. However we had made the mistake of sitting next to Geoff Wright and at the end he insisted that I write a piece on being the Mayor of Kenilworth, where my wife, Jenny, and I have lived since 1977, bringing up two children, who now both live in New Zealand. So, here it is, ‘A few Days in the Life of a Provincial Mayor’.

Our Town Council now has the status of a mere Parish Council so my bid for power has been a failure so far. However, I have to represent everyone in the town, not just my fellow Green Party members and last week was a busy one for Mayoral duties. Monday afternoon saw a visit to the Engine Inn to lend support to a clothing collection for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Photos were taken and a brief interview for the local paper. Yes, there was a free beer afterwards; there have to be some perks. We had intended to fly the Ukrainian flag outside the Council offices but we found that a minor repair to the flagpole was needed and Gemma, our young administrator, and I managed to effect it. It then took ‘til Thursday to get a quorum of councillors and staff, including the Town Clerk, together for the flagraising while Gemma took photos.

On Tuesday morning, I visited the local Fire Station to meet the volunteer firecrew and a senior lady officer who was visiting the Station that day in order to introduce new planning and policies to the crew. I was impressed by the ability of the firecrew to question and discuss the changes constructively and the senior staff’s willingness to listen. The crew also gave us a demonstration of cutting a crash victim out of a car in the car park behind the Station. Later, Jenny and I were guests at the local Soroptimists Poetry and Tea afternoon to mark International