Mayoral Archive

Councillor Carol Cunio was elected as 788th Mayor of Southampton on Wednesday 12th May 2010.

The Mayor chose ‘Southampton Sunday Lunch Club’ and ‘St Mary’s Titanic Memorial Window’ as her two charities for this year.

This year the Mayor was fortunate enough to attend the ceremony for the naming of the new Cunard ship ‘Queen Elizabeth’ which was named by Her Majesty, The Queen. All three of the Cunard ships, QM2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth have Southampton as their home port.

During her year the Mayor has visited many of the city’s schools giving them an insight into what the mayoralty is about. Primary and Junior school pupils were also invited to submit a design for the Mayor’s Christmas Card this year and this was won by a pupil from Weston Park Junior School.

The Mayor was also delighted to attend the performance of ‘Southampton Passion 2011’ which took place in Guildhall Square and was attended by thousands of people.

Councillor Cunio has had a very busy year attending over 500 engagements and has been proud to represent the city of Southampton on these occasions.

Councillor Elizabeth Mizon was elected as 787th Mayor of Southampton on Wednesday 13th May 2009.

The Mayor chose ‘Age Concern, Southampton’ and ‘Fairbridge Solent’ as her two charities for this year.

This year the Mayor attended two Freedom Parades. The first was for the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment who exercised their right to march through the city. This followed their tours of duty in Afghanistan.

The second was for 17 Port & Maritime Regiment and the city also welcomed their Colonel in Chief, Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal.

Both of these events were very proud moments for the Mayor that she was very pleased to attend. She also had the opportunity of presenting some of the soldiers with medals.

Councillor Mizon also introduced two different initiatives in her mayoral year which followed her theme of community which ran through the year. They were the ‘Good Neighbour’s Award’ and the ‘Celebration of Young People’s Coming of Age’.

We had many nominations for ‘Good Neighbours’ and they were all presented with a certificate and memento at the Mayor’s Reception Room in February. The nominations were very varied from organising local litter picks, helping with local youth groups, to generally looking out for your neighbours.

For the ‘Celebration of Young People’s Coming of Age’ we invited some young people from local colleges that had reached the age of 18. They were given a tour of the mayoral suite, introduced to democracy by the Mayor and some of the councillors and rounded the evening off with a glass of wine and a slice of cake. We had two similar events during the year and they seemed to go down well with the young people.

Councillor Brian Parnell was elected as 786th Mayor of Southampton on Wednesday 16th May 2008.

The Mayor chose ‘Street Pastors’ and ‘Dreamwall’ as his two charities for this year. The end of April saw the official launch of ‘Street Pastors’ taking place in the Mayor’s Parlour.

This year also saw the Mayor involved in the ceremony granting the Freedom of the City to the Territorial Army in Southampton as well as saying goodbye to the Royal Naval ship HMS SOUTHAMPTON, who had been affiliated to the city since 1976 and finally decommissioned in February 2009.

The city also said goodbye this year to the Cunard liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Mayor was onboard for the final event before the ship set sail. He was presented with a painting of the QE2 which is now on display in the City Art Gallery.

One of the major events that took place during the Mayor’s term of office was the opening of the new IKEA store in Southampton in February. The Mayor was on hand to assist the Store Manager, Allesandra Taffe, with the opening of the store.

Councillor Parnell and his wife, Mary, have attended over 550 events this year and have thoroughly enjoyed their term of office. They have felt privileged to represent the city on many events and to meet so many of the people who do so much within the city.