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MAYOR of Winchester Cllr Chris Pines is set to hand over his chain of office tomorrow night (May 14).

As one of his last acts as Winchester's 808th Mayor, Cllr Pines presided over the retiring Mayor's dinner at Winchester Guildhall on Friday.

During his year as Mayor, Cllr Pines has raised around £40,000 for his chosen charities, helped by An Evening With Colin Firth at the Theatre Royal Winchester.

The charities Cllr Pines championed were: Age Concern Winchester, Friends of the Family, Winchester, Winchester and District Young Carers Project, and Youth Options, Youth Support Team.

Cllr Pines, whose escort for the year has been his friend Denise Baker, said: "We have had so much fun this year. I think Curtis the pony has to be a highlight. He was a pony who was standing in for a donkey in an outside nativity scene at Christmas.

"There was the Bishop of Winchester, me and about 10 other stalwart people on the coldest night of the year and the pony upstaged the audience and the players.

"Obviously the parade through Winchester by the Army, and the other forces, was a good one and things like that which were marvellous.

"We started up the youth council, which was great and we had all the kids in from Winchester for Fair Trade and we have just got a Fair Trade Award for the city.

"I am over the moon that we have raised so much money, it is tremendous. We have not achieved anything like that for years and it has been done by a series of small events."

Cllr Pines added that he was also proud of the fact that he had established a Mayor's award scheme to recognise volunteers in the city.

"There are hundreds of volunteers who don't get recognised for the work they do. Another of my ideas is in its second year. The Alfie Awards celebrate people who work for the city council who have gone that extra mile and that has been expanded," said Cllr Pines.

He concluded by saying he was looking forward to a well earned rest and would be endeavouring to rid his garden of slugs.

During Cllr Pines' tenure as Mayor of Winchester, he said he had attended around 700 events and had 2,000 people come to Abbey House, the official residence of the Mayor of Winchester in The Broadway.

The year before there had been 700 invited to Abbey House.

Cllr Mike Read is due to take over as Mayor tomorrow night at the official Mayor Making ceremony in Winchester Guildhall.

8:59am Tuesday 13th May 2008

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