Captain Beany cannot keep still; in his 40 years plus of raising money for charity, and taking part in all number of community endeavours, he’s now decided to take his local celebrity up a notch as he designated himself as the ‘Mayor of Aberavon’ and the local council don’t seem to mind.
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00:00The only council estate in the UK that's actually got the coastline.
00:06I'm here in sunny, beautiful Aberavon in Port Talbot, part of the Neath Port Talbot Borough.
00:11It's run by the local council, Neath Port Talbot Borough Council, and it's been here
00:14since the council set up and the way they are.
00:17But one local man, one that many local from the area already knows very well, Captain
00:21Beany, who comes all the way from planet Venus, has decided that he is the new self-appointed
00:26mayor of this beautiful council ward.
00:28It's not something we've seen happen maybe ever before, but if you know the captain then
00:32it's exactly the kind of thing he loves to do.
00:35I'm chatting to him all about his recent promotion to the mayor of Aberavon.
00:39And they go through a process of, you know, of having a succession of councillors.
00:45Okay, you know, they do their work, they get paid for it and everything, and I thought,
00:49do you know what?
00:50This is a great opportunity to nominate somebody in our society who has done so much for the
00:56community and likewise for myself, and it can be a fundraising.
01:01So I put upon, as you well know, a Great British Eccentric Award winner, 2009, and I thought
01:07wouldn't it be fun if I sort of have a self-designated mayor of, hmm, where do I mainly live in?
01:14Oh, I live in Aberavon, here in South Wales Port Talbot.
01:18The captain says it's all about raising profiles of local heroes who do so much for their local
01:22community.
01:23It's unclear quite how it's all going to be decided, whether he'll give up his mayoral
01:26duties and pass them on to the next person, or just create a whole new role for someone
01:30else.
01:31But what I can say is the ceremonial civic chain definitely does suit him.
01:35And believe it or not, it's actually got the Welsh flag.
01:38What more do you want?
01:39And I thought, where else can I embellish that I am technically the mayor of Aberavon?
01:46So I went on a website to order a blue plaque.
01:52Captain Beattie, mayor of Aberavon, Great British Eccentric Award winner, been there,
01:56done that, lives here.
01:57I tell you what, that's a damn good, let's resurrect the dead, go on, have somebody with
02:02a pillar of society, you know, to be nominated as mayor of Aberavon.
02:09And it seems the council are actually quite supportive of Captain Beattie and his new
02:13role.
02:14A Neath Port Talbot council spokesperson says that while it has no connection with Neath
02:17Port Talbot council, and there is no official role of mayor of Aberavon, we wish him luck
02:22with his new venture and his very long-running community engagement endeavours.
02:26Why not go there?
02:27I mean, within the Neath Port Talbot area, we could have the mayor of Marga, mayor of
02:33Baglan, you know, Skewing, everybody designated within their own ward system.
02:40Captain Beattie is wholly dedicated to charity work.
02:42He's opened all number of community centres, school fates, ran 10Ks, half marathons, all
02:48in the name of raising money for charity.
02:50It all started way back almost 40 years ago when he sat in a bath of beans for four whole
02:55days straight to raise money for a local charity, right in that hotel there.