Coun Tim O’Kane

Mayor’s viewpoint

WELL, what an eventful August for the Mayor and Mayoress! Who would have thought when I did the Cycling to Rio promotion for the manufacturers of the Team GB Olympic kit, Simon Jersey, at the Accrington Food Festival, that Team GB would come back with the same amount of gold medals as there are on the Mayoral Chain.

What a fantastic achievement!

We started off the month by officially opening the refurbished William Dyer Stand at Accrington Stanley, along with their generous owner Andy Holt and Chairman of the Stanley Supporters Club, Peter Leatham. Some of the gold must have rubbed off on them because within a week they had not only won their opening match against Doncaster, but they beat Bradford a record 11-10 on penalties and secured a peach of a fixture at home to Premiership club Burnley, which was immediately snapped up by Sky Television.

As I write this viewpoint they have not only won that fixture and beaten a Premier League team for the first time in their history, but they have drawn another Premier League team in West Ham. On Stanley On!

We couldn’t stop to watch the match because we had another engagement at Church View Residents Home, we met up with the Accrington Pipe Band there and Mayoress Melanie struck a deal with them that has something to do with playing bagpipes. I‘ll let you know more about this as things develop! The following day we attended a fundraiser for Roughlee Home, which as you know, is one of my Mayoral charities. After opening the event, Burnley Scooter club arrived with about 30 scooters, I welcomed them and agreed to be photographed on one of the scooters. This started a bit of a trend and for the next half hour I was photographed on an assortment of Lambrettas, Vespas and Vipers.

Whilst there I was contacted by the President of the Cogloads Motorbike Group and was asked to present the prizes at their annual bike show, which also supported Roughlee Home, so I ended up on a Honda Fireblade, several Harley Davisons and something called a Suzuki Streetfighter!

We had a splendid time at the Ladies Mayoral Golf Competition at Great Harwood Golf Club recently, congratulations to the winners, Accrington Golf Club and thanks to everyone who came along for your generous support, which is much appreciated.