MORPETH ROTARY AND THE WORK OF THE MAYOR
Each year the Mayor of Morpeth is made an Honorary Member of Morpeth Rotary and is invited to take part in all meetings and events. Mayor David Bawn agreed to be a speaker at the weekly Rotary Zoom meeting to explain the work that he does. It has been an unusual year due to Covid-19. The expected full diary had been very light because there had been no events. His first thought was what could he do for the town in these challenging times. Last year’s mayor Alison Byard was a difficult act to follow and she had raised a lot of money for her charities. His mayoral charity is Contact Mental Health. His first mayoral event in support is to be 30 August with an evening garden cocktail party on Millennial Green.
In the middle ages Morpeth did not have a mayor as the chief officer of the Borough was a Bailiff. The first Morpeth Mayor was elected in 1836 following the creation of Morpeth Municipal Borough under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. The chain of office David was wearing is 130 years old and made of 18 carat gold. It had been used by Castle Morpeth Borough Council which covered a much wider area including Ponteland. Castle Morpeth was abolished in 2009. They handed over the historic items relating to the mayor to Morpeth Town Council. The mayor is the person elected to be the Chair of the Town Council for the year.
David was born in Morpeth 41 years ago and attended Morpeth High School. He went south to study at Leicester University and York University then trained on the job as a solicitor under a training contract. He worked at Newcastle until two years ago when he got a job in Morpeth and is now Managing Partner at David Auld and Co. He took an active interest in local politics from 2013 and since then has been elected to Northumberland County Council and to Morpeth Town Council. On NCC he is Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee, has responsibilities for economic regeneration and for the response to Covid-19. On the Town Council he is Chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee. His wife Nicola is also on the Town Council as well as being a busy mother and pharmacist.
Morpeth has an ambitious Council where councillors work together in the interests of the town without letting party politics get in the way. There is a project to renovate the pavilion at Carlisle Park, an upgrade is planned for St. James Community Centre and there is work to prepare for the new NCC leisure centre. Employers say they need more all day parking so staff don’t have to move their cars every two hours. An additional 140 spaces are planned for the Goose Hill site.
There was a question on whether empty shops should become housing but Morpeth has less vacant retail spaces than other similar towns and would not want to see any loss of retail and service facilities.
President Colin Dyson thanked the mayor for coming to meet him at Rotary Glade and for the exciting collaboration with the Town Council on the Rotary NHS project.
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back Notes on presentations and discussion.