Being Mayor in Romsey

Mark Cooper has had the privilege of being Mayor of Romsey on two occasions.

Mark Cooper's Speech On Becoming Romsey Town Mayor on 15th May 2007

Test Valley Mayor and Mayoress, fellow Councillors… Honoured guests.

Thank you, all, for being here this evening to share this occasion with the Town Council.

This is a Civic occasion, but it is not the Town Council’s presence that makes it into a civic occasion. It is the many organisations that you represent and that work quietly in the background in the service of your town and its people that makes our society civil and safe and decent.

You are the civic occasion, not us.

A special thank you, too, to my proposer Alan Marsh and my seconder Dorothy Baverstock for their kind and generous words. Both serve this Town with unstinting commitment and have privately borne significant recent adversity…

I value their support and friendship beyond words.

To be Town Mayor in the year of the 400th anniversary of Romsey’s Royal Charter is a great privilege and one I share with Mike Richardson… he and Julian Jones are the keystones around which the Charter Celebrations and the Royal Visit have and are being organised. They have both retired from the Town Council which, once they have finished their Charter Duties, will be a great loss to us all; they are both unique, both selfless and both irreplaceable. Thank you, both.

I have over the last few days had a number of strong representations made that t speeches this evening shall be short and succinct:- I can’t think why that should be but a certain football interest maybe significant....

I have three objectives for the coming year.

Firstly, financial matters. The Town Hall has seen a huge expansion of activity in the last year. Whilst lettings are covering their costs, at last, and probably for the first time in my 21 years on this Council, new investment in equipment and in repairs and maintenance in time for Charter Year and the Royal Visit has been expensive. The Townspeople pay 57 pence a week for their Town Council and we must ensure that they continue to get value for money.

Secondly; consensus decision making within the Council; we can do it on virtually all the 300 planning applications we see each year, so we can do it, too, on all the other decisions we make. Councillors should leave their politics on the ballot paper and once they walk through the Town Hall’s front door should only have the interests of the Town at heart. Every individual on this Council needs to have at the forefront of their mind the following thought… “Does what I am about to do or say advance and improve the welfare of the people of Romsey?”

As my part on this matter, I stand down, as from now, my role as Liberal Democrat Group Leader on Test Valley Borough Council.

And thirdly; to maintain and encourage the Civic life of the Town by sustaining the traditions of the Town Mayoralty, by supporting the organisations of the town, many of which are represented here. Towards this end I do not intend to name individual Town Mayor’s Charities. Rather I will continue the precedent set by Cllr Dorothy Baverstock of having a Town Council Community Chest into which any monies raised by Town Mayor’s Charity is placed. Organisations can then apply for resources from the Community Chest as and when needed.

On the matter of the Town Mayor’s Chaplain, I have asked the Curate, Tim Harling if he will undertake that role.

I would also like to announce that my wife and the mother of our five wonderful sons…who are all here this evening… will be the Town Mayoress… and accordingly I present her with the Town Mayoress Chain and badge.

In June 2007 Mark Cooper was the Romsey Town Mayor for the Royal Visit to Romsey

Royal Visit Welcome Speech 8th June 2007

Your Majesty; Your Royal Highness; Lord-Lieutenant; High Steward; distinguished guests:- the Town Council and we many Romsonians offer you a sincere and warm welcome on this gentle, summer morning.

We are honoured to receive you on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of our royal charter. You may remember we were equally so honoured in 1957 when you attended the 350th Anniversary of the Charter.

When in 1607 your predecessor King James I ‘by his special grace’ did sign the royal charter for Romsey he granted the town its Borough status.

And so, by royal and special grace, down through the ages, Romsey has retained its Mayoralty and its Town Council; and these, and our splendid Victorian Town Hall, remain a focal point of our corporate pride.

And – Your Majesty… we are proud of our Town. The years since you last joined with us to celebrate the Charter have been years of rapid and radical change; the population has risen from 6,000 then to 14,000 now; yet we feel we have managed change so that what is of value from the past is maintained and enhanced… the Market Place in which we stand is evidence of that individual and corporate care.

What is new and different has been subjected to the conscientious scrutiny of the Town’s people and their Civic organisations; so, despite change, we have a happy town with a remarkable community spirit. We hope you have a sense of that by the tenor of your welcome, here, today.

Your Majesty; your Royal Highness; as you see, we, the people of Romsey, hold you in the highest esteem.

Thank you for coming to Romsey;
for marking our celebrations with your presence at the service in the Abbey;
for unveiling our Charter Stone…
and thank you for meeting so many of our residents.

Now; the 1607 Charter is quite precise. It states that a ‘distinguished man’ should act as High Steward. I now call upon our High Steward, The Lord Brabourne…