At the Town Council's Annual Meeting on Tuesday 13th May 2008, the Council elected Mr Peter Jay as its new Mayor for 2008/09.  Peter and Emma Jay have lived in Woodstock for the past 16 years.  Peter was a former BBC Economics reporter and British Ambassador to Washington.  Since retiring from the BBC, Peter has lectured in Economics at the Henley Management College and was recently inaugurated there as a Professor.  He joined the Town Council as a Member in 2004, since when he has Chaired the Finance Committee and during the period 2004/05 and 2005/06, was Deputy Mayor to Pauline Richardson.

Mayor Peter Jay's Speech to Council

"Ladies and Gentlemen,
I want to thank the Council very much for the honour you have done me.  I am very proud to be, for a while, your elected Mayor; and I want to promise I will try my best to be a good Mayor and to be a Mayor for all Councillors, whether or not you supported me and to be a Mayor for all of our Woodstock people.  I have only lived here for 14 years and only been on the Council for 4 years, both of which I realise are very short periods by the standards of this wonderfully well established Community.  So, I ask you, please forgive my shortcomings and please help me to serve you in the best interests of Woodstock.  I am going to need and to rely on the help of all Councillors, who between you have so much goodwill for this town and so much each and every one of you to give to it in all your various different ways.
I want to say a special word to Brian who has made no secret of his feelings about this election and about me.  I can tell him that I know another Councillor, even closer to home, whose criticisms make his seem very moderate.  Brian, please believe me that I understand and respect your dedication to this town and that I admire and welcome your tireless efforts for it.  Of course we have our disagreements as Councillors often will; but I offer you the hand of friendship and of co-operation in our shared work for the Council.  I hope you will be willing to share it.
I also want to say to Julian that I know his day will come and that he will sooner or later be a very good Mayor of Woodstock.  I want to ask him for his continuing, very active, participation in the life of the Council because we all benefit from his huge experience in Local Government, to say nothing of his family's long memory of the life and people of this town.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I also want to pay tribute to the retiring Mayor, to Colin.  When he was elected he inherited what had been a sorely divided Council and he pledged himself to preside impartially over our debates and be accessible to all shades of opinion, while continuing to work for the things in which he believes.  I believe that he has fulfilled that pledge and served the town with great dignity, humanity, good humour and fairness; and that we should all be deeply grateful to him for his Mayoralty which has left the Council more harmonious and the town better run that an one time seemed possible.
We also say goodbye, at least from the Council chamber, to old friends now leaving us after, in many cases, extraordinarily long service - the outgoing Deputy Mayor Ann Cooper and former Mayors Robert Edwards and Ian Lenagan, as well as District Councillor Jill Dunsmore and Councillor Sue Hazell.  May I say a personal thank you to all of them, who in their different ways have given us so much of their time and talent and love for Woodstock.
I am sure Jill and Sue will forgive me if I single out Ann, Robert and Ian for a very special tribute to their something like 75 combined Council years.  I hope I will not be considered out of order if I say that one of my first acts as Mayor will be to ask the Clerk to place on future agendas of the Mayor's Committee and the Council the question whether the time has not come for Woodstock to add new names to that of John Banbury as Honorary Townsmen or perhaps Townsmen and women.  However that may be we thank them most heartily for all their hard work making this town better, whether through Ann's inexhaustible appetite for the small details that are the stuff of good administration, Robert's Herculean labours on behalf of Woodstock life whether animal, vegetable or mineral and Ian's dynamic enterprise in building bridges between the town and its trading life-blood, as well as his unstinting concern for the young people of Woodstock and their opportunities for recreation and employment.
 

13 May 2008