WEST BERKSHIRE COUNCIL CHAIRMAN’S RECEPTION

The Chairman of West Berkshire Council, Andrew Royles, held his final civic reception by a dinner at the Newbury Hilton on the evening of Saturday 12 April to which I and Edwina Cooper were invited. And so we, together with the Mayor’s attendant Carol Currey, arrived at the hotel and were greeted by Andrew Royles and his lady, Wendy Carpenter, and by Irene Neill, the deputy chai rman and her husband. Apart from seeing many West Berkshire councillors of both political parties, we met up with the Mayor of Thatcham, Phil Dray and his wife and Peter Harries, the Mayor of Hungerford and his wife whom we see quite regularly at functions locally. We also met the Chairman of the Berkshire Fire Authority, Paul Bryant who is the Councillor for Speen and the Chief Fire Officer, Iain Cox. We were delighted to meet the Lord Lieutenant, Philip Wroughton who had been recently honoured by a knighthood, and his wife. There was a fair sprinkling of other Mayors and Chairmen of the other Unitary Authorities in Berkshire. After the reception, we all moved into one of the large dining rooms in the hotel where all 120 of us sat down to dinner. Andrew Royles announced that there would be some of the Council staff who would be coming round to sell us raffle tickets, the proceeds which would be going to the Newbury Branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society
At dinner, I was seated next to the newly appointed High Sheriff of Berkshire, Dr Carolyn Boulter who had taken over from Harry Henderson. She lives at Theale and is looking forward to carrying out her duties. I mentioned to her that we had been to the local heats of the schools mock trials held at Newbury Magistrates Court. She said that she would be involved with them during her year of office.
After an excellent meal, the raffle was drawn. There were some excellent prizes but regrettably, none came our way. The dinner concluded and we thanked Andrew for his kind hospitality and left well fed and watered.