A Word From Mayor of Felixstowe, Mark Jepson

How wonderful to see all the fantastic events happening around Felixstowe over the summer. Congratulations to everyone who took part in WAMfest, which was so well organised by Laura Locke. I was disappointed not to be able to attend personally but I know it was a huge success. The Deputy Mayor, Cllr Sharon Harkin, attended many of the art events and thoroughly enjoyed them. It was a great idea to use different venues throughout the town, such as The Triangle, for the festival events. Having spoken with some of the choir members, 

I know how much they appreciated people coming to stand and watch their concert. There is potential for WAMfest to become an annual occurrence and with the support of the Felixstowe BID and others I am sure this will be possible.

It was very exciting to be able to host the first mayor’s charity event in 20 months! A very successful music quiz night was held at Felixstowe and Walton Football Club with Stephen ‘Foz’ Foster. Thank you to the football club for making the facility available and for their hard work on the night. Felixstowe Carnival Association and Citizens Advice Felixstowe – our chosen charities – also worked incredibly hard on the fundraising raffle. Thank you to everyone who came along. The atmosphere was fantastic and I hope that we will be able to host another quiz night again soon. 

We are now preparing for the town council’s annual Civic Awards. After this recent difficult period, we are very much looking forward to being able to recognise and reflect the tremendous efforts of our community heroes. The Civic Awards themselves will be announced and awarded on the FelixFest stage at Sea Road from around 1pm as part of the Women’s Tour finish on October 9. Please joins us there to show your appreciation to all our community heroes. FelixFest activities start from 10am so there will be plenty to enjoy across the weekend.

I hope to meet some of you at the forthcoming ‘Curry and Conversation’ charity event at the Blue Naan restaurant in November. Radio Suffolk’s Mark Murphy will be there, alongside David Sheepshanks, Russell Osman and Tommy Smith (now captaining Colchester United) to answer your questions. Lesley Dolphin has even agreed to operate the roving microphone! Please feel free to wear your favourite football shirt. Further details of the event and how to book your tickets can be found on the town council’s Facebook page and in the autumn edition of our quarterly magazine.