Mayor’s Blog: Routes through Richmond upon Thames

'How do I get there and back?', is often a large consideration when we're thinking of making a visit somewhere, followed shortly by 'how much will it cost?' Very much okay for The Mayor, I hear you say, as there's an electric car (plus driver) assigned specifically for them to use for Mayoral events. This is something that's provided so that I can visit more residents and find out what wonderful volunteers you are (I mean that sincerely).

The Mayoral car drove me to the Civic Service last Sunday at St Mary's, Twickenham. Where, amongst wonderful music, we had a chance to think and ponder on what 'service' to the community means. Specific thanks go to the Rev. Jeffery Hopkin Williams, Vicar of St Mary's, who led the service and the Rev. Rachel Bedford from St Stephen's, East Twickenham, who preached.

The most exciting forms of transport that I have encountered while being Mayor have been boats. To mention first, we have the naming of the new ferry in Konstanz, our twinned town in Germany. This I named, 'Richmond', in June of this year. It is powered by liquified natural gas and is one of the most environmentally friendly ships in the world.

The other boat I saw named and launched was the new lifeboat at Teddington Lifeboat Station early in September. It was named the Alderman Penny Shelton. It was good to meet such a dedicated crew and Hilary Shaw who founded the new lifeboat in memory of her sister, a former Mayor of Kingston.

There are other means of transport that I have used recently. The vintage Routemaster bus took me on a tour around the Community Centres on the Twickenham side of the borough. The Deputy Mayor was able to travel on the Richmond side to visit the Community Centres there. We enjoyed entertaining commentary provided by Angela Ivey from Visit Richmond and excellent cream teas at the centres.

I haven't used the cargo bikes but some of these are available around the borough for hire and can be used instead of cars or vans to transport heavy loads. Excellent for residents to use for their businesses or for their homes instead of cars.

While being Mayor, a train I have used was the Eurostar to go to Fontainebleau, another of Richmond's twinned towns, this one being in France. It took me to this stunning part of France, south-east of Paris. We used the local bus and visited the Chateau, which was built before trains and cars!

Trains have made our borough the popular outer suburb of London that it is. The trains came to Richmond in 1846 and Twickenham in 1848 and made travel to the City of London a possible daily commute. This expanded our many what were then only villages.

Before this we had the building of bridges, particularly Richmond Bridge constructed between 1776 and 1779 which meant London was accessible by horse drawn coach.

Yes, I still try to walk for some daily exercise but also there has been a 'Twickenham Tour' which was a guided walk around Twickenham and raised funds for my Mayoral Charities, Age UK Richmond and SEEN. Also, this week I had a short walk around the grounds of York House accompanied by teachers from Konstanz who were on a German School Exchange with Teddington School.

So, you see there are many ways around our beautiful borough and lots of interesting things to think about on the way. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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