I spent the morning at Rugby Borough Council's Annual Meeting and installation of the new Mayor. For 2008/9 the Mayor will be Councillor Bill Sewell, who was first elected in 2002, the same year as me and we were "new boys" together. Bill has been a fantastically hard working Councillor and will make a superb Mayor and ambassador for Rugby. He has chosen as his theme for his term of office "Civic Pride" which he has shown by example in his ward of Hillmorton and which he will lead on in other areas of the Borough. We have a team doing a great job in our town centre but we have other areas which would benefit from a demonstration of pride in our community and there is no better person to make this happen than Bill. I know he and Janet will have a really busy year and will enjoy every minute of it.Today's meeting represented the very best of local government and there were some very fitting tributes to former councillors and others leaving office. Our outgoing Mayor, Sue Peach, who I worked with as a Councillor and have met at several events across the Borough has always been most courteous and again a terrific representative. Also standing down as a Councillor is former Mayor Bill Shields with whom I shared a ward and who has been an excellent source of advice to me, particularly during my time as a Councillor.
