It has been a great honour and privilege to have served as Trowbridge mayor for the past year.

This has been a year that I have thoroughly enjoyed, and one that has enabled me to attend hundreds of events and meet thousands of people as mayor of Trowbridge, for, and on behalf of, the Town Council.

I regard this as a very special year in my life, because as mayor I have been able to view our town and county from an entirely unique perspective, and learn a great deal about the inner workings of not only other councils, but also of local businesses, schools, community organisations, local charities and our many voluntary groups.

I would like to thank everyone for their kind invitations and hospitality.

While I have met many employed people at all levels, my real surprise has been the vast number of ‘unseen’ volunteers, of all ages, that offer their time and energy in helping others.

I never knew before just how important these people actually are in our community, and subsequently the importance of their recognition by the town council every year by awards at the civic dinner and the town gathering.

This has been a very busy year, with many changes taking place and while I acknowledge there is a recession, and that Trowbridge has not escaped this, I would point out that despite the economic climate we may have developments by the end of 2009 with a value in the region of £60m, facilitated by the joint councils, under the banner of Transforming Trowbridge.

However, with so many building blocks in place already, I can say that Trowbridge will be well placed when the market does recover.

During the past year I have also been privileged to visit our twin town: to Leer in Germany, to celebrate their 500th Gallimarkt in October 2008.

I also went to Charenton in France for their New Year event in January.

Also in January to Oujda in Morocco for the initial signing of our partnership agreement, which has now been finalised.

Throughout my year I have been supported by many councillors, and my special thanks go to Bob Brice and Nick Blakemore, whose advice and wisdom were at times invaluable to me.

While offering my thanks to so many people, I would also like to extend them to all the staff at the town council.

In particular the town clerk Lance Allan and the council secretary Trish Carpenter, without whose continued advice and support my role as mayor would have been impossible.

Thank you all once again for a great year.

Cllr John Knight, Trowbridge Town Council.