Richard’s first civic duty of 2014 as a Sutton Councillor was to attend the Registrar’s office in Worcester Road, in our Ward, on 2 January to make the speech of welcome by a local Councillor at the first Citizenship ceremony to be held in Sutton this year. At these ceremonies people who have successfully applied to be British citizens are awarded a certificate confirming British citizenship. Richard welcomed and congratulated the new British citizens.

The ceremonies are of particular interest because of the variety of people from distant parts of the world, all of whom have lived and worked in this country for a long time, who take Citizenship. On 2 January there were people from Bulgaria, Poland, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad, Nigeria, Egypt and the USA (from Hawaii).

Richard says “These are invariably hard working people who have contributed to Britain and want to take the logical final step of becoming British Citizens, something that involves them passing examinations on the British way of life and on our language. I am always struck by their enthusiasm for Britain.”