The Mayor of Oswestry, Councillor Mark Jones.

After a fairly quiet January and February it has really gone up a gear with lots of civic engagements for me.

I was delighted to be asked to go and visit Holy Trinity School, the children (and I) really enjoyed it, especially seeing the full civic regalia. I visited every class and took questions aiming to leave them knowing more about how the Town Council works. I was very impressed with the school, it was very tidy with brilliant historical timeline of murals on the corridor walls.

The Oswestry Youth Festival was another real success seeing lots of different performances from drums ,piano and flutes all done extremely well and very difficult to judge. Claudia on the piano and Jakob singing the very amusing Green Eyed Dragon were the outstanding and leading winners. The Youth Music festival Committee, led by Sue Turner and with council officers co-ordinating the even, should be really proud of their hard work pulling this all together. I have never had so many photos done in one time before!

Later I attended the Candlelit Vigil for Ukraine ,it was very moving with the excellent Peter Bellingham of the Well Church leading the prayers and then Titania from Ukraine sang a haunting Ukrainian prayer to a crowd of around 200 people. Our hearts go out to that country and their people.

Local writer Vicky Turrel had a book launch at Wilsons. Extracts read by local people made the book come to life and it was a great event -The Mayoress says it’s a great read! I will try and start it soon.

The Queens Jubilee Celebrations saw me doing one of my favourite things -planting a tree, this was planted in the 70th year of her reign and on the 70th day, luckily the council team had  dug the hole out and I planted it and helped fill it back up (the easy bit) The Lime tree is just up from the Fire Station in Brogyntyn Park, I look forward to see it grow.

Finally, this week I took time to visit Oswestry Cricket Club and see the RV Club started by ex servicemen Steve Adams and Ben Morris, I wanted to go and see it as OTC have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and wanted to know more about how we can help especially as our town has a  Military Hertitage.

Pictured: Jakob Fradley, overall winner of the Oswestry Town Council Cup, with the Mayor, Councillor Mark Jones.