I was born in India, as were my parents - but my grandparents were from Manchester, so I'm a bit of a Heinz 57! I was fortunate to have a very good education where English was my mother tongue.

I came to Britain, joined the Royal Navy, but was disabled out during the Korean war so came to Bangor to study and it's been my home ever since.

I thought it was a very quiet, rural city, just nice for university life - somewhere where you can study without too many people to distract you. I still like it.

The Welsh people are very hospitable. I didn't have any problems trying to feel at ease here and this is why I'd like those from different cultures who settle in Bangor now to feel happy here too.

I've learnt that 76 different nationalities live in Bangor, which rather surprised me. For example, there are 300 Polish people, and I've realised that a lot of them don't talk to us as city councillors.

So the idea is to integrate them into the community by inviting everyone to a multi-cultural festival on October 28 2006. So when everyone meets up - German, Polish, whatever, everyone can say 'hello', in Welsh or English. If everyone says that enough times, people will feel part of the community. After that I'm hoping they will learn to speak Welsh or English if they want.

We'd like to form a committee to represent the multi-cultural society in Bangor so they will have somewhere to give their views and opinions. The university has the most nationalities and they are well catered for by the staff there, but the others have only an informal group of different people trying to help here, there and everywhere. There's no coordination as far as I can see.

In council meetings we discuss Bangor matters, but we're thinking of the traditional Welsh/English community. Groups of different nationalities aren't always kept in mind.

So on this first multi-cultural day we're going to have a community choir singing, the Menai Junior Brass Band and a magician. There will also be lots of stands from different organisations, such as the Intermediate Age, a group which looks after people who are less well off, no matter what their age or background. They do a lot of good work but aren't really advertised and we could do with them up here in North Wales.

The university, college and job centre will also be there - people who I'd like to get together to help the many nationalities of Bangor have their voice heard.

Eventually, I'd like it to turn into a carnival for Bangor, with maybe the Chinese community doing the lion and dragon dance.

Pictures from the festival.