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Photos from the Liverpool Lord Mayors Parade 2010
The following set of photos are from the 2010 Lord Mayors parade in Liverpool City Centre. It is an event held each year to celebrate the Lord Mayor or Mayoress in this case of Liverpool and their office.
History of the Parade
The first parade was held in 1971 as a result of an idea by the Liverpool Junior Chamber of Commerce (LJCC). The LJCC were looking for a way in which it's members could gain valuable experience in organisational skills that could not be gained in the workplace.
During this period the Lord Mayor that year had a charity fund which was available to community groups and other worthy causes, however over the years interest in this area had dropped and the fund had decreased. This coincided with the interest of the LJCC of holding a Lord Mayor's Parade as this would not only give organisational skills to it's members, but also aid the Lord Mayors Charity Fund. A proposal was drawn up and submitted to the Lord Mayor, the result was the Lord Mayor's Parade 1972.
The parade went from strength to strength until 1984, when three weeks before the parade, the ruling group on the city council decided to abolish the position of Lord Mayor and replace the position with a Council Chairman. This came as a bitter blow to the Liverpool Junior Chamber of Commerce and upset over six months of careful planning. A quickly convened meeting of the Parade Committee decided to continue with the parade, under the name of the 'City of Liverpool Parade'.
For the next seven years the parade continued to be known as the 'City of Liverpool Parade', however this time saw a decline in the number of entries of floats and other commercial support from business within the city. The reason for this was mainly political. Some held the view that supporting the parade was surreptitious support for the council executive. During this time, as there was no Lord Mayor, there was no Lord Mayor's charity fund, as a result of this it fell upon the LJCC to nominate charities as the recipients of the funds raised.
Happily 1991 saw the return of the office of Lord Mayor and the parade reverted to being the Lord Mayor's Parade. Since 1991 the number of both commercial and non commercial entrants taking part in the parade has gone back to somewhere near the pre abolition days.
In the past, the only part of the festivities to have been funded by the public purse was the evening reception, that being paid for by the Lord Mayor's office and hosted by the Lord Mayor. The City has also been kind enough to waive the charges for road closure notices placed in the local press.
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