Agenda and minutes

The Mayor was pleased to announce that he had awarded five awards of £2,500 to successful organisations through the Mayor’s Opportunity Fund, which he presented at the Coronation celebrations. The Mayor thanked his chaplain, Reverend Carol Dunk, and councillors for their support during his mayoral year.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

It was proposed by Councillor Temperton, and seconded by Councillor Neil, that Councillor Ejaz be elected Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2023 – 2024.

There being no further nominations it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Naheed Ejaz be elected Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest  for the 2023 - 2024 Municipal Year.

Councillor Ejaz was invested with the Mayoral Chain of Office and then made and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office of Mayor and thanked Members of the Council for her election.

In her acceptance speech, Councillor Ejaz thanked councillors for appointing her as the Mayor and celebrated a new chapter for Bracknell Forest Council.

Councillor Temperton delivered a vote of thanks to the retiring Mayor, Ankur Shiv Bhandari, reflecting on the unique elements of the mayoral year including the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the arrangements for the memorial service for Queen Elizabeth II, and for the Coronation of King Charles II.  

Councillor Temperton also celebrated the Mayor’s Opportunity Fund which had benefited several organisations in the borough and remarked that last year’s dual faith Civic Service had been a first for the borough.

The retiring Mayor, Ankur Shiv Bhandari, in his response thanked officers and Members of the Council for their support during the last year. He thanked his family for their support during his Mayoral year, and former Leader, Paul Bettison for his leadership of the Council for the past two decades.   

Ankur Shiv Bhandari was presented with the badge of Immediate Past Mayor by the Chief Executive.

It was proposed by the Mayor and seconded by Councillor Temperton that Councillor Penfold be appointed Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2023– 2024.

There being no further nominations, it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Penfold be appointed Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2023 - 2024.

Councillor Penfold was invested with the Deputy Mayoral Chain of Office and then made and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office of Deputy Mayor.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 19 April 2023.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Council meeting held on 19 April 2023 be approved  as a correct record.

The Council meeting was adjourned for 10 minutes.

There were no Mayor’s Announcements.

It was proposed by Councillor Neil, and seconded by Councillor Bailey, that Councillor Temperton be elected Leader of the Council for 2023 to 2024.

There being no further nominations it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Temperton be elected Leader of the Council for 2023 to 2024.

Each of the four political group leaders:

Labour – Mary Temperton

Conservative – Gareth Barnard

Liberal Democrat – Mike Forster

Green – Adrian Haffegee/Sheila Collings

Will have the opportunity to introduce themselves and their groups to the Council.

The Mayor invited all the Political Group Leaders to introduce themselves and their groups to Council.

Councillors Temperton (Labour group leader), Barnard (Conservative group leader), Mike Forster (Liberal Democrat group leader) and Haffegee (Green group co-leader) introduced their groups and highlighted some key areas of interest for their respective groups. All group leaders were looking forward to working with colleagues to provide the best service for residents.

To note:

a.     the Members appointed by the Leader to serve on the Executive for the 2023/24 municipal year;

b.     the appointment of executive committees, sub-committees, and advisory panels; and,

c.     the appointments by the Leader to external organisations

The Leader of the Council presented her report detailing the Members of the Executive and changes to Executive portfolios as below:

The Leader also presented the appointments to the Executive Committees and its Advisory Panels and to external organisations, as detailed in the agenda supplement.

To agree:

a.     the establishment and membership of committees;

b.     appointments to external organisations;

c.     the interpretation of the six-month rule for councillor attendance.

On the proposition of Councillor Temperton, Leader of the Council, seconded by Councillor Neil, it was RESOLVED that Council agrees the following:

(a)             The establishment of ordinary committees, their size and allocation of seats, as set out in paragraph 5 of the report

(b)             The establishment of the Licensing and Safety Committee and the Overview and Scrutiny Commission, their size and allocation of seats as set out in paragraph 5 of the report

(c)             The membership of each committee, in accordance with political groups’ wishes as set out in the revised Appendix A of Agenda Item 11

(d)             Appointments to external organisations as set out in the revised Appendix B of Agenda Item 11

(e)             To waive the application of s85(1) of the Local Government Act 1972 so that attendance at Council, the Executive and any of the meetings listed in Appendix A of agenda item 11 either remotely or in person, satisfies the requirements of the six-month rule for councillor attendance at meetings.