FIRST PERSON: Newly-appointed Mayor of Newport Cllr David Atwell

"Born the youngest of three children, my parents ran Atwell’s Newsagents and Tobacconists, the family business on Malpas Road and my grandfather was an elected member of Newport Town Council somewhere between the end of the First World War and the start of the Second World War.

A calling for politics must run in the family.

My father was a carpenter and joiner, and the foreman of the building section at St Cadoc’s Hospital in Caerleon.

He would get up each morning around 5am and go to the newsagents and put the papers ready for when my aunt came downstairs to run the shop for the day.

He used to pedal all the way from the shop, near where we lived, to Caerleon so he could start work at 8am, he would finish at 5pm and come back home.

He would return to the shop and close it at 8pm.

He was a very hard worker.

As a toddler in the 1940s, my memories of the war were sirens wailing and us going down into the air raid shelter.

This was central to our neighbours either side who also came into the shelter and we all go underground together.

I found the noise quite exciting as a boy.

My first experience of school was the infant school in Crindau which was on Lyne Road, then on to Crindau School and finally Brynglas.

During my junior school days at Crindau, I became aware of the girl who was going to end up as my wife, Carole.

I remember her well.

Obviously there was no relationship going on at that time, but I knew who she was because she didn’t live that far away from me.

I played football more in those days because I hadn’t yet been introduced to rugby, but it wasn’t long before I started to play both rugby and cricket for the school.

On leaving school I became an apprentice carpenter joiner and continued my further education at the College of Building because I loved the subject so much and studied building construction, receiving an award from the Mayor of Newport for my achievements

I was also very involved in the activities of All Saints Church in Brynglas because in those days the church was very much part of your social life.

There was choir practice twice a week and bell ringing on Monday, and a drama club too.

This was where I met Carole again, and we started to go out together at the age of 17 or thereabouts.

During that time I was playing cricket for Malpas and football for the YMCA youth team because in those days you weren’t allowed to play rugby at senior level until you were 18.

I turned back to the game that was my favourite, which was rugby.

I went to play for St Julian’s Old Boys.

They had a restriction that if you hadn’t gone to the school you couldn’t play for the firsts, so I settled for the seconds.

But after a few games for the seconds they seemed to relax the rules and was soon drafted into the first team.

I then played for the Saracens. Following a trial I was chosen for the second team and soon managed to play my way into the first team.

I played for them for a season and a half.

To belong to the top class you had to reach the senior stage and go through a three year probation period to play rugby at a more senior level.

We used to play teams like Ebbw Vale seconds, Cardiff seconds and similar and the like.

It was a pretty tough time.

It wasn’t long after that I became a fully qualified carpenter joiner and completed my studies and thought I should have a job at a level commensurate with my qualifications, so started applying for all these different jobs.

At interview I was often the most qualified, but not the most experienced at the practical side of general building, so I didn’t get any of the jobs.

So I decided to start my own business instead, and I didn’t look back.

I had several partnerships along the way, but ended up working just for myself.

I secured some major contracts in Newport and the surrounding area.

In 2001 whilst living in Langstone the councillor who was representing the ward, Cllr John Northcott, was taken quite ill.

I wasn’t a member of a political party at that time, but I think the residents in Langstone could see the way I thought and they rang me up out of the blue and said would I represent them and stand in the by-election.

I was a bit shocked.

At the time Cllr Allan Morris, who now represents Lliswerry, was also living in Langstone and he was also standing for election.

At the time I didn’t think I would win, but I put my name forward anyway and I was successful.

Work, sport and politics have been a big part of my life, but not as important as my wife and children.

My first-born was a girl, Victoria, born about two years after Carole and I got married.

She is now married to Andrew Burchell and they started the successful World of Kitchens in Caerleon, not far from where my father worked at the hospital.

We then had a son, Christian, who has a fishery in north Devon and, with his wife Ellen, has just presented us with a new granddaughter, our seventh grandchild.

Our daughter Portia is an Oxford graduate and is currently a lay reader.

She lives with husband James and her family in a small village north of Nottingham and now we have three great-grandchildren as well.

Sometimes I think we can take our families for granted.

All the way through my life my wife Carole has been really, really supportive.

We’ve been happily married for 56 years this year.

I’ve put her through some trying times which she would have rather not experienced but, in fairness to her, she’s always supported everything I have done and I’ve tried to do the same for her.

She’s giving up yet another year of her life to support my year as mayor of Newport.

She keeps telling me to support me as mayor I also need to support her to be part of it so she can enjoy the year as well.

But I do consult with her a lot because she is more astute than me, and she has proven me to be wrong on many occasions, I am told.

We had a period when we used to do one or two cruises a year and we would meet people around the dinner table who would say “Oh yes, I’ve been to Newport, we had to go there for our passports, what a dump it is”.

That really used to hurt me and, so my aim in my year of office is to correct and change this perception of the city as often as I can.

Something which also disappoints me is the fact that some children, when they do well academically, rarely come back to the city.

Take my three children, I only have one of them living close, they’ve all had to move away to get the jobs they wanted.

I’m sure there are many other families like that.

Let’s hope the current prosperity brings more good jobs to the city.

But at the end of the day, I am so proud to be living in Newport and that changes for the better have come.

They’ve taken a long time but they’re here for all to see – just look along the river from the old town bridge.

People should remember that we have come a long way and, as mayor of Newport, I’m proud of that, proud of the town that grew up to become a city."