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Oxfordshire
County News
2009/2010
 The River Thames takes 82 miles to meander from one side of Oxfordshire to the other on its way to London. I know the route and mileage in painstaking detail because over Easter I realised a long-held ambition to walk the length of the County’s Thames Path.
As well as being to my mind a fitting way for me to round-off my term of Office, my five-day ‘Easter Thames Trail’ from St John’s Lock, Lechlade – where England’s longest river leaves Gloucestershire a dozen or so miles from its source – to Henley Bridge neatly encapsulated my year as High Sheriff.
At the beginning an exciting, but daunting, challenge stretched ahead of me. I met interesting people along the way, and was joined, encouraged and assisted by friends, colleagues and supporters at every twist and turn. I visited parts of the County I’d not been to, met some amazing individuals and, thanks to the generosity of so many, raised substantial funds for charity. But all too soon, of course, it was over.
The walk meant I started my Shrieval year with a run and finished it at a stroll – not I hasten to say entirely due to exhaustion! The two events were linked because both were in support of Footsteps Foundation, a local charity which helps children and young adults with neuromotor disorders to develop and maximise their physical abilities. I was delighted to be joined at different stages not only by family and friends but also by people from various groups I had met during the year, including the Chief Constable, Chief Fire Officer, the Chairman and the CEO of the County Council, various Mayors and Chairs and several youth workers.
Anne Chambers, the High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, kindly came along to see us off and we were joined later by the High Sheriff of Berkshire, Dr Christina Hill Williams, and her husband, seen here on Sonning Bridge with the County boundary sign. Also in the photo are the founder of Footsteps, Pip Hoyer Millar, and her daughter, Minty. Sonning was the start of the last leg of the journey to Henley, where Mayor, Cllr Elizabeth Hodgkin, greeted a tired but happy band on Easter Monday afternoon.
Earlier in my year in October the fifth High Sheriff’s Law Lecture took place in the Oxford University Examinations Schools in the presence of the new Vice Chancellor, Professor Hamilton. This event, inaugurated by a former High Sheriff, Ian Laing, attracted an audience of almost 400, including 150 sixth formers from the County’s schools, to hear a stimulating lecture entitled ‘The Role of the Judges in the 21st Century’ given by Lord Justice Scott-Baker. This year I initiated a prize for the best essay written about the lecture by a pupil in attendance, which was won by Anna Stellardi from The Cherwell School in Oxford.
A highlight of the Shrieval year is the opportunity to meet a wide range of people, and I have been particularly heartened by the young people and youth-related groups that have been my focus. I was fortunate to meet youth teams in East Oxford (one of the poorer areas of the County), and to visit youth charities and several children’s centres. I have been most encouraged by the involvement of young people in organising themselves, which was born out when my wife, Felicity, and I were invited to the Oxfordshire Youth Winter Ball, at which 24 groups met and celebrated their achievements. During my visits to all the Police stations in Oxfordshire I discussed youth issues and how they are being handled. Again the signs are encouraging, with youth crime down in the County. While on the subject of Police, the annual High Sheriff Awards for the Thames Valley Police are an excellent opportunity to show our support for the Police Service, and I was delighted to be able to give the individual award to the Chief Inspector of the Vale District – my ‘patch’!
My fellow Thames Valley High Sheriffs – Allan Westray (Buckinghamshire) and Christina Hill Williams (Berkshire) - and I, with generous support from Oxford Playhouse, organised a trip to the Panto for 200 members of the Thames Valley Police, and it was great to meet up with those that were able to benefit from this event, as well as 100 more Oxfordshire Retained Firemen who attended the show at my invitation the following day.
An issue that had concerned me from the outset of my year as High Sheriff was how to engage with the wider community, and one solution I devised was to use my Oxford office to hold what I called ‘community lunches’. I hosted six such gatherings for 20 or so people, inviting each time a Judge, a police officer, usually a magistrate and representatives of local charities. Other guests included the Lord Lieutenant, Tim Stevenson, The Bishop of Oxford, The Rt Rev John Pritchard, and representatives of The University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University and local business.
 One of the most rewarding occasions of my year was the High Sheriff Awards ceremony, held in our County Hall and well supported by the Chairman of the County Council, Tony Crabbe. I presented awards to 14 men and women of all ages who had helped with young people in Oxfordshire. So many do so much, and I think all in attendance were humbled by the commitment and achievements of both the winners and those that in the judging had narrowly missed out on an award.
Our last fundraising event was held in The Ashmolean, which was founded in 1683, making it the oldest museum in Britain, and probably the world. This wonderful University museum, at which I was honoured to be presented to Her Majesty The Queen when it reopened last November after a major refurbishment, provided a great venue for an ‘Evening of Sparkling Entertainment’. Five talented local youth groups, who gave freely of their time, entertained us wonderfully, including street dancers Messy Jam who performed outside the grand main entrance in rather soggy conditions. Generous sponsors and guests ensured a very successful evening for my two other charitable projects: a kitchen at TRAX, a motor-based charity, and Bounce Back for Kids (helping families after Domestic Violence) for PACT (Parents and Children Together).
It has been a privilege to serve as High Sheriff this year, during which I have enjoyed invaluable and unwavering support from Felicity. My very best wishes go to my successor, Marie-Jane Barnett.
One requires a sense of humour to be High Sheriff – particularly when your name is Richard Dick and your first engagement is a live radio interview on April 1st! I felt my prime-time slot on BBC Radio Oxford to talk about my swearing-in, and the role of High Sheriff in general, went well. However a listener phoned in shortly after to say it was the best April Fool he had ever heard!
Children are of course less cynical. And they have the best and most excited reaction to the term ‘Sheriff’. When visiting an Oxford primary school to recognise the efforts that the local parish council and community association had put into hosting a summer play scheme, one small girl announced: “He looks like a proper Sheriff with his badge, but that Council’s too mean to buy him a pony even!”
I was delighted that the Lord Lieutenant and the Hon Mr Justice Saunders, along with Circuit and District Judges, heads of Court services, magistrates, prison Governors, the Chief Constable, the Fire and Youth Services Chief and representatives of the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes joined me at St Catherine’s College for a Law Dinner, at which the differences between the roles of the High Sheriff and the Lord Lieutenant were explained. This proved to be an excellent networking event for all concerned.
Oxfordshire, I am learning, is not a County where there is a huge demand on the High Sheriff’s time to look after High Court Judges. This means I have been able to focus on some key objectives for my year, which include helping charities concerned with youth and encouraging recognition of the achievements of young people. I am primarily supporting three youth charities as High Sheriff.
PACT (Parents And Children Together) is marking its approaching centenary with a new building blocks logo that better encapsulates its ethos of building and strengthening families. PACT, helps homeless teenage parents and families facing child protection issues in its quest to increase the life chances of children. The charity is currently piloting a scheme to help children in families that have witnessed domestic violence and I am delighted to say that my fundraising, which Oxfordshire County Council has generously agreed to match, will fund training for two dozen facilitators as the scheme is rolled out countywide.
TRAX is a motor-based charity whose creation was fuelled by the ‘hotting’ craze that gave Oxford’s Blackbird Leys estate international notoriety in the early 1990s. seventeen years and 5,000 students later, TRAX’s mission remains unswerving – to channel youngsters’ enthusiasm for vehicles in a challenging direction and to encourage them to become positive and active members of their communities. This year it has earned a certificate of commendation in the 2009 National Crimebeat Awards.
 I had not envisaged pounding the streets of Oxford as High Sheriff, but having agreed to raise money for the Footsteps Foundation – a wonderful charity that uses pioneering physiotherapy to help children with neuromotor disorders to maximise their physical abilities – I entered the Oxford Town and Gown 10k event. Unfortunately, the event already had a nominated charity, but Footsteps helpfully found me a 5k run in University Parks the week before, so I ended up running twice! The bottom line was £4,700 in sponsorship for this worthiest of causes, and while I was pleased with my times of 22 and 53 minutes I decided not to brag to double Olympic Decathlon champion, Daley Thompson, when he dropped in to TRAX during a charity bicycle ride shortly afterwards.
 My runs did make the local press, helping to raise further the profile of High Sheriff. However, my attendance to present awards when Barton and Wood Farm neighbourhood policing teams and local youngsters took each other on in a community football match did even better, making national TV.
As an engineer, I am acutely aware of the engineering and technological skills shortage facing British industry. I am particularly impressed with the work that Oxford & Cherwell Valley College and Oxfordshire Education Authority are doing in the field of Young Apprenticeships and Engineering Diplomas, and am proud to be the sponsor until at least 2011 of the Oxfordshire Young Engineer High Sheriff’s Award – probably the first award of its kind in the UK.
Like most counties, Oxfordshire has a number of youth-related charities with complementary aims and challenges. So it seemed a good idea to get as many of them as possible together for a networking ‘Link-Up’ event. Held at, and generously sponsored by, Abingdon School, the event attracted representatives from 44 charities and representatives from the Armed Forces, local council family services and children’s centres. Many of these charities help young people who get into trouble and so it was particularly pleasing also to have had in attendance representatives from the Police, Youth Offending Service, magistrates, the Fire Service and other bodies committed to reducing youth-related crime.
In supporting the work of charities, the need for funds becomes even more evident. So I am very pleased that after a fantastically well-supported concert of light classical music at Dorchester Abbey, near Abingdon, at the end of September, we are already well on the way to achieving my year’s fundraising target of £15,000 for PACT and
TRAX.
Richard Dick
High Sheriff of Oxfordshire 2009/2010
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