Summer 2019
To echo my previous piece as your outgoing Vice Chairman, I’d like to say a warm hello to all of the residents of the Wombourne Parish – this time as your new Chairman. I must say, it is a great honour to be elected your Chairman for the next year, and along with the newly elected Council, we look forward to serving our Parish over the next four years.
As such, we have a wealth of talent on the Parish Council, including all seven of our District Councillors, and our County Councillor. I am grateful for their continued support and guidance, and we benefit greatly from their close involvement in the village.
Only a few weeks into my new role, I have already been kept busy representing the Parish across a wide variety of events. All have been thoroughly enjoyable, and I look forward to attending many more.
On Monday 24th June, I attended the flag-raising ceremony at the District Council for Armed Forces Day. As a history teacher myself, I am very committed to honouring the very best of our armed forces, whether current or historic. They deserve our undying respect. At this ceremony, I was stopped by a young lady who was amazed to see the procession, particularly of Parish and District Chairmen proudly wearing their chains of office. She asked me what I did, and I responded that I chaired my Parish Council and represented it at official engagements. She observed that the chains looked heavy, and was grateful for me taking the time to speak to her. Actually, it was a pleasure. I look forward to many more such encounters.
Of course, it has been that time of year again, where the village was gripped by Carnival Fever. This year’s theme, Bringing Books to Life, was well supported by the school float competition, and the quality of the entrants was as high as ever. Indeed, this is quite a pertinent theme, given the times. I’m sure we’ve all come to identify children’s playtime with television and video-games these days, but it is extremely important to underline the importance and joy of reading. I look forward to this each year, and it was fantastic to see so many turn out to support it.
The Carnival committee do a fantastic job in putting this annual show on, and a big well done to all those that help to bring it together on the day! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting people throughout the day, visiting all the stalls and seeing the fantastically high standards at the W.I. event. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves too, and look forward to seeing you there next year.
One of my main initiatives as Chairman has been to demonstrate my unwavering support for Wombourne’s Best Kept Village committee. They have done a fantastic job for many years keeping our village looking its best, and in recent years has grown its volunteer base which is enabling it to undertake ever more ambitious initiatives. It is amazing to see the improvements they have made to the village. Anyone who has been past the Women’s Institute village hall on the High street recently will be able to attest to what they can do in a single morning, and I was delighted to offer my own services in support of them.
What is more, with support from schools, and all manner of youth organisations, they are helping to create a new generation that sees actively caring for their surroundings as an essential part of community life. This is simply inspirational, and I would ask all those that can spare a morning to check the BKV Facebook page for their next scheduled activities – it would be lovely to see you there.
Finally, I would like to reiterate the words of our last Chairman, Mary Roberts. I really do wish to encourage more community feedback to the Parish Council, especially your triumphs, and hope to see residents in the Public Participation sessions before the monthly Parish Meetings.
Daniel Kinsey
Chairman
Wombourne Parish Council