DEBORAH CADMAN is Birmingham City Council’s chief executive. Raised and educated in Birmingham, Deborah spoke to The Voice about her reflections and hopes for legacy after the Commonwealth Games.

RH: How proud are you of what the city has achieved?

If you go into Centenary Square, there are still crowds taking photographs. Local people are now coming into the city post Games because they want to see the Bull [which was the centrepiece of the Opening Ceremony]. They’ve seen how brilliant the city centre looks on TV, so people are still feeling it.

Did you manage to get to any of the events?

Not as much as I wanted to! Whilst it was lovely having 11 days of sport, or even better 11 days of cultural activity, there’s still a job to be done and there were still some tricky things to have to deal with sadly, but I did get see some of the netball.

The netball was fantastic, wasn’t it?

It was just fantastic. I was privileged to give some medals out for the boxing. I am a huge fan of Delicious Orie, and I was at the semi-final when he won which was brilliant.

I detected a great sense of pride I Birmingham. Did you detect that as well?

Yeah, 100%. A lot of that was around local residents talking to visitors and spectators and tourists. One of the lovely stories I’ve got was about a black woman called Maisie. She came to Victoria Square every day and lives on her own.

Her family are all grown up and left the city and her husband sadly died. But she came to Victoria Square every day to sit down and watch the Games. She also came to see all the entertainment that was on and I thought that was really, really lovely.

I said, ‘Why do you want to get on the bus and come in’, and she said: ‘Because I love the connection of people and I live on my own and this is a way for me to see the Games, but also to see and talk to people.’

I just love that story because it wasn’t just a Games of sport, or a Games of culture, it was a Games of people feeling connected and routed into their place which was such a lovely thing.

What tribute do you want to make to Games volunteers?

The first thing I’d say is ‘thank you’. Every single volunteer that I spoke to and came across, just loved doing what they could do in terms of helping people, all people, which was just great.

You could sense for them just wearing the uniform and being part of this movement was a brilliant thing.

What would you hope for now in terms of legacy for local people?

This is really important. We’re putting just as much effort and energy into making the legacy, ensuring that local people can touch, taste and feel the legacy and the benefits of hosting the Commonwealth Games in this city.

I want to see and build upon the community based events that we invested in and put on.

For the first time, local people went to their local park and experienced something quite fantastic. For the first time people went out of their house and went down the road and were able to sit in front of a large screen and have that sense of community watching this great event that was taking place.

Also, the legacy of local people and local community groups coming together and being financially supported and encouraged to just demonstrate what they could do, you know, from the Indian drums, reggae groups, Ukrainian music.

We gave them all a platform to kind of sell their stuff into the community.

I’ve never heard or seen Indian drumming and Bangla dancing before, I am going to give that a go! I really understand what it means now.

Just opening up cultures and activities from different cultures was a brilliant thing. I want to make sure that we can continue to use that as a way of driving cohesiveness and providing that gel that brings different communities together.

For me that’s most important that we can  look back on the Commonwealth Games and say it was worth every penny.

Birmingham, confirmed once again, that it’s a really, really big player as a sporting city didn’t it?

It definitely demonstrated through the Opening and Closing ceremonies that actually we’re a really brilliant cultural city.

I was really proud at the Opening Ceremony, but I was doubly proud at the Closing. It was beyond brilliant.

What would you hope to see in terms of the city and the community, come next summer?

This is really important and it’s important that we talk to local people, and we ask local people what they would want to see. So, the conversations we’re having at the moment with local community groups and those local cultural groups that are supported, is what would you like to see as an anniversary event? Let’s celebrate a year on and let’s allow you to do what you did this year, but build on it.

Also, we’re now talking about an annual International Cultural Festival, an arts festival for the city, the best of Birmingham that we allowed the world to see this year.

I want to build on that and play it out again next summer, and I want Maise to come back again!