Mayor's July 2009 webcast

Councillor Roger William Lightup, the Mayor of Salford for 2009-2010 will be holding a regular webcast to talk about what's going on in the city and to share information about some of the engagements he's been to.

This is the first webcast, which includes the Mayor talking about his chosen charities for his mayoral year and the Mayor's Citizens Award.

Transcript of webcast content

Hello, my name is Councillor Roger Lightup, and I am the Mayor of Salford for 2009/2010.

Being chosen to serve Salford in this role is a huge honour for me, and is the culmination of 25 years of service as a local councillor. I am very proud and raring to go as Salford’s first citizen. This webcast is to tell you a little about myself, my chosen charities for this year and my ambitions for my year as Mayor of Salford.

I am an adopted Salfordian and I have now lived here many years, longer than anywhere else in my life. I can assure you that the Mayoress and I will use these 12 months to promote our city and its people, and I look forward to receiving your support in performing this task.

As Mayor of Salford, it is an honour for me to select a number of charities to benefit from my office’s fundraising activities. In choosing my charities, I wanted to select local organisations to which I can really make a difference. So, with that in mind, I have chosen St Anne’s Hospice and the Salford Young Carers Project.

My own father died in a hospice a few years ago, so I know firsthand the level of care and support that hospices offer. This was reinforced when I made a visit to St Anne’s last year, to present awards to the hospice’s volunteers. Some of the volunteers had given freely of their time for the last 20 years, and I was very impressed by the level of commitment of everyone involved. When we heard how little central funding the hospice receives, I became determined to make them one of my charities. I’m sure you will be amazed to know that St Anne’s needs to raise £16,000 every day of the year just to stay in business. My ambition is to save them at least one day of fundraising, and I hope you will help by joining in some of the many fundraising events, in aid of my charities, that will be taking place during the coming year.

My other charity is the Salford Young Carers Project. I have heard so many stories over the years of young people who, not to overstate things, give up their childhood to care for their parents or siblings. Having met some of Salford’s young carers I want to raise the profile of the amazing work they do, and raise money to help the local carers’ project, so that they can offer support to these young carers when they need it most. I also think that young people all-to-often get a bad press, and I look forward to working with them to publicise what these extraordinary young people do each and every day.

I would now like to tell you about some changes which are going to make to the Mayor’s Citizens Award. In future, there is going to be an award for young people, one for adults and one for community groups, so that the award will become more relevant to the whole community of Salford. More information will be available on the Salford City Council website, in Life in Salford and in the Salford Advertiser about how you can nominate someone for one of these awards. I think that it is vital to reward voluntary effort in our city, and I look forward to receiving nominations from all sections of the city’s population over the next year.

In conclusion, I want to make the Mayoralty as accessible as possible, providing a champion for the people of Salford and their achievements, and a proactive force for improvement. We should all be proud of the city in which we live, and I want to spread the word about all our achievements. I also want to engage with the local media - radio, newspapers and TV - to ensure that they give the city a fair crack of the whip. If you are part of an organisation and you would like the Mayoress and I to participate in one of your events, then please get in touch with the Mayor’s office and they will book you in.

I am looking forward to the next 12 months. The opening of the Media City at Salford Quays next year, and the hard work and efforts of many to regenerate buildings and create work for our people - especially in a recession - is something I am very proud of.

I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can over the next 12 months.

This page was last updated on 3 October 2009