Former Southend mayoress VERINA WEAVER offers her personal view on the decision to buy a new, cheaper chain for the Southend mayor

A DECISION has been taken to allow the Mayor of Southend, David Norman, to dress down and not wear the historic chain of office with which he was inaugurated back on May 12.

He will wear a tacky gilt replica on his day-to-day mayoralty activities. The reason given is the mayoral budget has been cut by £34,000 and this will enable him to go out and about without the macebearer. We are told he will only wear the proper chain of office for special occasions such as Remembrance Day and elections. This cannot be right.

When the mayor is invited to attend events around the town and often further afield, he is being invited as the representative of the borough. Many of the events are charitable. The engagemens outside the borough usually involve other dignitaries also wearing their chains of office.

The Southend mayoralty is revered around Essex as one of the oldest and most dignified. The chain is much admired by all who see it – our mayoralty is also known for the large amount of money raised during the year for its various charities.

One of our most abiding memories from our mayoralty back in 2004/5 was how people enjoyed seeing and indeed occasionally handling the chain, with its beautiful seal in the middle, particularly children at the many schools we visited.

By wearing the chain, the mayor is bringing a piece of Southend’s history to life. The mayoral budget has been cut every year for at least the last five years, without needing to go down this drastic route.

While we all understand and applaud the need to trim the budget so unnecessary luxuries are not being funded by the council taxpayer, do the residents of Southend really want a do-it-yourself mayor in a cheap replica to turn up at their events?

In these austere times, a little pomp and circumstance can do wonders for an event, as was seen by the recent Royal wedding.

Are not all residents of Southend important enough to allow the mayor to pay them the respect of wearing the proper chain, accompanied by his mayoress wearing her chain of office?

Mr Norman is quoted as saying this will be a satisfactory and practical arrangement – satisfactory for whom? Certainly not the thousands of people he will meet during his mayoral year, who are expecting to see the real thing.