Mayor of Kenilworth Cllr Peter Jones shares his thoughts on the first half of his year as the town's mayor.[.L]

The editor of Kenilworth Nub News has asked me to write my thoughts on this, despite previous evidence that these are likely to put readers to sleep.

In the seven months that I have served as mayor, I have attended about 50 events, including those online, and had at least 10 cancelled by the persistence of the dreaded virus or extreme weather, as in the case of the Christmas Lights Events.

Jenny and I have represented Kenilworth at events hosted by other mayors in Whitnash, Warwick, Leamington, Southam and Coventry so there has been at least a partial return to normality on the Civic front.

We have particularly enjoyed meeting people at events in our own town, where our hosts have been surprisingly pleased to see me, and we have learned about the valuable community work that goes on in Kenilworth.

Some of the highlights of 2021 (and apologies to those I have not mentioned) have been:

- The Naturewatch Week in early June, in which youngsters and their parents enthusiastically took part in pond-dipping, mini beast hunts, walks and a range of other activities celebrating and investigating our local environment.

- The play written and performed by Clinton School in the open air at the Castle in early July.

- Kenilworth Lions Charity Day at Talisman Square in early September.

- The civic reception at the castle in mid-September, where volunteers with the NHS and Covid Support were among our guests,

- The Arts Festival, soon afterwards, with a superb evening concert in Talisman Square.

- The Stoneleigh History Society's Musical Pageant, in St Mary the Virgin Church, with a generous donation from the proceeds donated to the mayor's Charities.

- The four acts of Remembrance in November, with a fine turnout of people for the Sunday service and parade.

- And the town council's Christmas market and shop window competition in December, followed by the Lions' Carol Service in Abbey Fields.

However, our personal favourite has to be the official visit to Thorns School on October 8 for the grand reopening of their teaching pool after expensive repairs.

The enthusiasm of the children and staff was matched by the lovely mural on the wall and the quality of the cakes, and made it an afternoon to treasure.

Writing this on Christmas Eve, we are hoping that our plans for the festive period and after will go ahead and that the Omicron variant is less damaging to health than feared.

If so, perhaps we can proceed cautiously towards normal lives, bearing in mind the continuing need to reduce our carbon footprint if we are to avoid extremes of climate change.

In the meantime, I wish you all a happy New Year.