Ref. 30049-10NEW British citizens were formally welcomed at a special ceremony at Swindon's Civic Offices yesterday.

The ceremony, which was the first of its kind in the town, saw three applicants take an oath of allegiance to the Queen and a pledge of commitment to the United Kingdom in what has now become a compulsory part of the naturalisation process.

Lorraine Phillimore, 42, Vangelis Grigoriadis, 29, and Kusuma Tansley, 29, were sworn in to the community at the ceremony in the Council Chambers.

Attending was a number of civic dignitaries and council officers, including Swindon mayor, Coun Derek Benfield and council leader Mike Bawden.

The ceremony was led by Karen Knapton, the superintendent registrar for Swindon.

Mr Grigoriadis, a software engineer, has lived in Swindon for the past four years and moved to the United Kingdom 11 years ago from Greece to study.

He said: "This has been very interesting and exciting.

"I had no idea it would be anything like this."

Kusuma Tansley, an auxiliary nurse at the Great Western Hospital, moved from Thailand four years ago and shared Mr Grigoriadis' sentiments.

She said: "I had no idea what to expect but I feel very welcome. I never thought there would be so many people here."

Mrs Phillimore, a housewife, came from the Philippines three years ago but had been visiting the UK for 17 years.

All three applicants, who were all already legally allowed to live here, were given a short history of the town by the mayor before being asked to stand to give their oath. Now they will hold a British passport.

Each was then presented with an information pack about Swindon, a small tiepin bearing Swindon's coat of arms and their certificate of citizenship.

A fourth person had been due to take part, but they have elected to have their ceremony performed at Swindon Register Office.

Mrs Karen Knapton, the registrar, said the ceremony struck a balance between welcoming new people to the community and stressing the importance of the decision those people had made.

She said: "This is all part of the naturalisation process, and it something done in other countries including Canada and Australia.

"The ceremony is rather like a wedding and we make it as dignified for the applicants as possible. I think it is something they all enjoyed."

Coun Benfield said he was pleased to welcome the applicants to Swindon.

The next citizenship ceremony is due to take place in June.

Anthony Osborne