Agenda and minutes

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.

It was proposed by Councillor Temperton, and seconded by Councillor Karim, that Councillor Penfold be elected Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2024 – 2025.

There being no further nominations it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Jenny Penfold be elected Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the 2024 - 2025 Municipal Year.

Councillor Penfold 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.

It was proposed by the Mayor and seconded by Councillor Temperton that Councillor Cochrane be elected Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2024–2025.

There being no further nominations, it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Cochrane be appointed Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2024 - 2025.

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

There were no Mayor’s Announcements but the Mayor hoped to announce her charity at the next meeting of the Council in July.

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 (as set out in revised appendix B of agenda item 6 and updated at the meeting), in accordance with political

groups’ wishes.

d)    Appointments to external organisations (as set out in revised appendix C of agenda item 6).

e)    To revoke the decision to waive the application of s85(1) of the Local Government Act 1972 so that, from the day after this council meeting, attendance at any of the meetings listed in Appendix B of agenda item 6 must be in person, to satisfy the requirements of the six-month rule for councillor attendance at meetings.

To provide an opportunity for each of the group leaders to address Council on their view of the state of Bracknell Forest.

The Mayor invited all the Political Group Leaders to make State of the Borough Speeches.

Councillors Temperton (Labour group leader), Barnard (Conservative group leader), Mike Forster (Liberal Democrat group leader) Collings and Haffegee (Green group co-leader) highlighted some key achievements for their respective groups over the 2023/2024 municipal year and looked ahead at the 2024/2025 municipal year.