Improvements to sports and leisure facilities, including moves to open a cinema, traffic and parking, and the cleanliness and appearance of the town are to be the main priorities during his year of office, says the new Mayor of Ross-on-Wye.
During his mayor-making ceremony, Councillor John Edwards promised a year of activity dealing with important local issues and grievances, highlighted by residents during the Ross Town Plan meetings. He said he would take full advantage of his year as leader of the town council and the opportunities available to introduce and promote ideas and policies for the benefit of the town.
Amid cheers and applause he announced that ‘Ross will have more control of what will benefit Ross’, if the town achieved Quality Status. He said the town council was just one tick away from applying for Quality Status, which he said it would do by the end of the month. Mr Edwards is also chairman of Ross Sports & Leisure Federation and has been championing the need to improve the facilities at the Wilton Road Sports Centre, which has been dogged by complaints about its changing rooms and showers.
He said: “One area of special interest to me is the research going on the plan to open a cinema. In my view a town, particularly of the size of Ross, is not a proper town until it has its own cinema.”
The statement brought a round of applause from the audience which had packed into the Larruperz Centre to witness his investiture.
A forum group of students at John Kyrle High School has already shown enthusiasm for the task of opening a cinema and the federation will work closely with them.
In terms of the retail outlook, he said a working party was needed to promote the town to prospective shopkeepers with the use of tax incentives and other encouragements and that the town council was looking at introducing a Ross house-style for shop front designs.
He dismissed those claiming Ross was ‘finished’ because of the number of empty shops and charity shops, saying this was ‘bunkum’.
He said the situation was similar in other towns and that things were better in Ross because of the excellent, independently owned, small specialist shops that he said ‘provide the cornerstone for the local community and tourists’.
The news that Sainsburys, Costa Coffee and Aldi were all planning to open new stores in the town he said was ‘heartening’.
He said he would set up a special working group to formulate changes needed to tackle traffic and parking issues, saying: “It is no good complaining about parking or the one-way system without having an agreed, credible alternative available to put forward.”
The Mayor’s chosen charity for the year will be Macmillan Cancer Support.
He said: “Having suffered cancer myself many years ago, I know a lot about the good work done by the Macmillan nurses. We have an excellent hardworking committee in Ross that raised a lot of money for Macmillan Cancer Support. I hope as Mayor to raise a good amount as well for such a worthwhile charity.”
Councillor Jo Lane was installed as deputy mayor and Able Cadet Wesley Jenkins, of the Ross-on-Wye & District Sea Cadets, is the newly-appointed mayor’s cadet.
Outgoing mayor Councillor John Davies and his wife Hannah were congratulated on the past year in which they raised £1,000 for his chosen charity Multiple Sclerosis. Mr Davies presented a cheque to Gaye Cheeseman, the chairman of the local branch.
