Opinion: emergency services have my full support

The recent knife attacks in our town centre are things that I never expected to see in our town and we need to understand why they happened and determine what we need to do to stop them happening again. This is a complicated area but we must look for solutions such as educational awareness visits to our schools by the police, a knife amnesty, awareness campaigns and improved community policing. The ages of those involved is both tragic and worrying and it must be remembered that the impact of violence goes beyond the victim and extends to families and the wider community so we must do all we can to stop this violence. We need to remember that in recent years Newtown hosted the "Knife Angel" - a sculpture from confiscated /surrendered knives - as part of its national anti-violence and anti-aggression tour and we need to reinforce that message and stand together against violence.

I want to recognise and thank both the ambulance service and Dyfed Powys police for their swift and comprehensive response to these incidents.

I know that our police work tirelessly to keep our residents safe and our communities secure often placing themselves in situations of grave potential harm.

As well as my thanks and admiration they continue to have my full support.

Since my last column I have had the opportunity to meet and talk to many of you at recent events and would like to mention just a few of the highlights as they really do showcase what is so good about our community:-

I was pleased to be invited to visit the Rekindle premises recently as Rekindle are one of my Mayor's charities. I spent a lovely and informative afternoon taking a tour and speaking to staff as well as seeing first hand some of the great work that they do.

It was a pleasure to listen to a presentation from the Newtown Street Pastors at full council recently as they are my other Mayors charity. On behalf of the town council I would like to thank the street pastors for their commitment to keeping Newtown a safer and more peaceful place when on their patrols and to thank them for the overall contribution they make to many peoples lives through their key principles of care , help and listen.

I was delighted to be invited together with the deputy mayor to visit an absolutely lovely lady - Mrs Audrey Leggett - and join in the celebrations of this remarkable lady's 100th birthday. It was truly inspirational to listen to her talk about her extraordinary life and to hear that she still loves volunteering one day a week to work in our local Red Cross charity shop.

It was a great honour to be invited to join the celebrations for Reg and Doreen Taylors blue sapphire wedding anniversary - it was great to talk to both of them and to hear stories of Reg's time as a past Mayor. A truly extraordinary couple and I hope their love story will continue to inspire and enchant us all. I was accompanied by the deputy mayor and we enjoyed taking part in a karaoke rendition of "sweet Caroline" with Reg.

On 18th March together with the deputy mayor and one of my fellow town councillors I took part in the Parkinsons UK support 10k walk/run at Newtown college. It was inspirational to see so many people take part and offer their support in raising both awareness and funds for this admirable cause.

I am sure that there will be many more highlights to come as well as many challenges and I would ask for any help/ideas/thoughts you can give as the best way to get things done is by us all working together.

Cllr Pete Lewington
Mayor of Newtown & Llanllwchaiarn