CHARD Town Council’s Annual Parish Meeting was held in the Guildhall on Tuesday, May 6.

It is not a council meeting but one called for members of the electorate which provides them with an opportunity to come and meet with the chairman of the council to ask questions and give feedback.

It has traditionally also been a time when reports are given at the end of the council’s year by both the town clerk and the Mayor.

The meeting is also when the town’s outstanding service awards are presented to people who have made a contribution over many years with voluntary service to others in town.

This year three recipients were chosen from the nominations received by a panel of town councillors.

This year was my first as Mayor and I was very pleased to be able to present, Tony Lister, Lorraine and Marc Marshall and Pat Galpin with their awards for many years voluntary work in Chard.

It was also my pleasure to be able to hand over a grand total of £7946.60 to my three chosen charities (they each received a third of the total raised over my year as Mayor).

After the regular parts of the evening were over the old mayor’s robe was presented to the museum to be kept with the other items of regalia and council history that is stored there.

This was made possible as the council purchased a new robe last year.

I am reliably informed that the robe will spend a few weeks in a deep freeze before it goes on display in order to keep any ‘nasty intruders’ from the Museums displays.

On Thursday, May 8, I visited Oak Lodge to take part in the visit from Manor Court School to help a few of the residents to make rocky road cakes.

The ladies helped the children to mix chocolate, marshmallows and crushed biscuits in bowls before we decanted them into cake cases and shared them out for tea; I enjoyed mine thank you children!

I have also been appearing with CATS in the production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Guildhall this week so my evenings have been quite busy.

We had great audiences, a big thank you to everyone who came to watch, we hope you enjoyed it.