Success must be built (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Success must be built

11:52am Thursday 5th July 2012 in Letters

Sir.–I write to express my concurrence with your remarks in The Gazette Opinion column concerning how much Basingstoke and Deane has to offer.

In my year as deputy mayor, and my first few weeks as mayor, I have had the good fortune to be introduced to a wide range of artistic skills, community endeavour and industrial enterprise.

As you recognise, we do ourselves no favours if we pretend that all is rosy in the garden because it is by identifying weaknesses and addressing such that we will become more successful. By success I mean not only the commercial success which is important to our borough and the nation at large, but also that of quality of life.

It is clear to me that without a whole army of selfless volunteers acting in almost every conceivable sphere that the quality of life in our borough would not be what it is today.

Nonetheless, there are still some areas under severe strain.

This is where I believe both the borough council, and the likes of your newspaper, can assist by networking and helping to identify and, where possible, address shortfalls.

One organisation which has emphatically done just that is one of my mayoral charities, the Basingstoke Consortium. It is to them that much of the credit must go for the TeenTech event which took place in Chineham earlier this month and to which you referred in your editorial.

Apart from massive personal dedication by Sue Riley and her team, a considerable financial risk was taken in underpinning the event.

Bearing in mind that the Basingstoke Consortium is all about helping young people enter the workforce in a positive fashion before, in some cases, they lose the interest in so doing, I believe there are few services which can claim a more important role in establishing a positive future for the borough and its contribution to Britain.

–Councillor Martin Biermann, Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, Civic Offices, London Road, Basingstoke.