Plastic-free town hope by new Kenilworth mayor

The newly-elected Mayor of Kenilworth, Alison Firth, has chosen an anti-plastics charity to support during her civic year of office.
Kenilworth Mayor Alison FirthKenilworth Mayor Alison Firth
Kenilworth Mayor Alison Firth

Although the position of mayor is apolitical, Cllr Firth has become the town’s first Green Party mayor.

Cllr Firth said: “One thing I feel genuinely passionate about is climate change and young people, and to give them a feeling they can actually do something about it.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The mayor and the deputy mayor were both appointed at the town’s annual meeting held at Kenilworth Castle on Monday May 20.

The evening also served as the first formal meeting for the town’s new 13 councillors. The four incumbents who survived the recent local election make up the 17-member town council.

Cllr Richard Dickson, who was appointed as deputy mayor, said: “There is a lot going on in the town as everybody knows, but at the heart of that town is a great sense of community”

The new mayor, who grew up in Kenilworth, attended Clinton Primary School and then Kenilworth School and was chairperson of the student council for two years at Castle Hall Sixth Form. She’s also performed in both the Talisman and Priory theatres.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Cllr Firth said: “I love this town and the people in it, some of whom I’ve known for many years after having been at school here since I was six. “I’ve enjoyed many of the events, which I will be proudly attending in this coming mayoral year.”

Among those events the mayor has participated in include the Two Castles Run several times and she has completed the Kenilworth marathon too.

She added: “Many Kenilworth people will know me from having my own business as a driving instructor in Kenilworth for the last 10 years or from having an allotment for many years.”

Cllr Firth has earned a BA degree in Linguistics and Drama Film and TV. She earned a MSc in Integrative Counselling from the University of Northampton last year, and intends to use those skills to counsel and coach young people.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She has chosen to support the Surfers Against Sewage and Greenpeace charities. Surfers Against Sewage has a scheme for reducing plastic in communities.

Cllr Firth also plans to liaise with the organisers of the Warwick and Leamington initiatives to be two of Britain’s first plastic-free towns.

She added: “I would feel so happy and proud to have used my mayoral year to get our beautiful historical town into the press again, this time for being a town which is at the very least taking serious steps to radically reduce, reuse, recover and recycle plastics.

“Even better still it would be a waking dream if this town were able to become another of Britain’s plastic-free towns.”

Related topics: