AS her time as Mayor of Frome comes to an end, cllr Sheila Gore reflects on her highlights from the past year.
Talking at last week’s Annual Town Meeting, Cllr Gore said, “One thing about being mayor is that you are shoved into the limelight, there is an imperative to be places or do things that you might normally avoid. However, you get used to it and just get on with it and in my case I’ve ended up enjoying the whole thing.
“One of the consistent tasks for the mayor is to go to all sorts of events and represent the town, thanking those involved and promoting the event or organisation. A few weeks after becoming mayor I was asked to formally open the newly refurbished Westway cinema. If you want a lesson in how to thank people properly then that was it, everyone from the apprentice carpenter to the architect and me were thanked and given a present.
“We are really lucky to have a cinema in town and one whose business plan means that we pay a fraction of the ticket price charged by the multiplexes. I have to say that if you want to support the cinema buy your refreshments from them those sales are how they manage to keep the price of the tickets so low.
“We are a town known for its creativity and I was invited to the fantastically impressive end of year show for the art students from Frome College that takes place in Rook Lane Chapel. This show revealed that we have some stunningly creative students and excellent teachers in the town.
“Funding for the arts in schools as many of you know is being drastically cut, which I think is a great loss. To my mind the arts don’t just help us explore different forms of expression, they encourage us to be creative and I think that helps not only the individual but the town and the world be more progressive, exciting and possibly a happier place.
“I was really delighted to have the opportunity to open the Frome Festival. What a great outpouring of creativity that is. In my speech I managed to announce the retirement of Martin Dimery from his role in the festival by mistake but at least this gave him the opportunity to have a joke on me.
“As I said, stepping into the limelight can be a challenge and being part of the Remembrance Service certainly was for me. I’ve been to the service several times so I knew what to expect but standing next to a Normandy soldier and watching children of Frome marching along the road in uniform while holding a wreath for the town was a very powerful experience.
“The lead up to Christmas this year was really special, not only was the centre of town, around the Boyles Cross being transformed I also managed to persuade Boots to spruce up the front of its shop and to cap it all local schoolboy Ted Lewis-Clark had his design chosen by the Prince of Wales to be the image for the Christmas first class stamp. The postbox in the centre of town was repainted to reflect his design and I invited him to turn on the Christmas lights from the balcony of the George. The switching on of the lights is a great event, made even better by the beautiful lantern parade, Frome samba band and lots of singing!
“Kids really like the mayor; and classes at Vallis and Selwood wrote to me after they’d had a walk around town. They wanted to let me know that they don’t like litter, graffiti and dog poo.
“I had a great meeting with the class at Vallis. The outcome from this has been fantastic. They drew posters to let others know that they don’t want dog poo left on the pavement and these have been displayed around town.
“A community group has developed in the Trinity area near the school and the Town Council has been able to support their events like the litter pick they held.
“And lastly I’d like to carry on supporting a community group beyond my time as mayor and so I’ve decided to support the brilliant Toy Library. I hope to raise awareness and some money for them in the months to come. They meet twice a week at the moment in the Church on Portway on Tuesday and the Library on Wednesday, more of that in the future…”
