Agenda and minutes

The Mayor’s Chaplains, Rev Roy and Rev Martin, opened the proceedings with a prayer and reflected on the Mayor’s year highlighting memorable events such as the College Town Junior School recycling initiative, the post Grenfell Tower talk given by the Chief Fire Officer and the charity fundraising event.

The Mayor was pleased to present a cheque for £51,556 to her nominated charity for the year, the Fire Fighters Charity. Trevor Ferguson, Chief Fire Officer from Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and Kerry James from the Fire Fighters Charity attended the meeting to accept the donation. Trevor Ferguson thanked everyone for supporting the Mayor’s charity and reflected that when residents needed help they called the Fire Service but when the Fire Service needed help they called the Fire Fighter’s Charity. The Mayor invited Sally Cathcart-Cunnison, Mayoral Support Officer, to join them and thanked her for her hard work behind the scenes.

The Mayor took the opportunity to thank them all for their support throughout the year and gave them framed certificates as mementos.

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 Bettison OBE, and seconded by Councillor D Birch, that Councillor Finch be elected Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2018 – 2019.

There being no further nominations it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Finch be elected Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest  for the 2018 - 2019 Municipal Year.

Councillor Finch 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 his election.

THE MAYOR, COUNCILLOR FINCH, IN THE CHAIR

In his acceptance speech Councillor Finch thanked colleagues for supporting his appointment and announced that his wife Diane Finch would be his consort for the year and they were looking forward to representing and serving the Borough of Bracknell Forest.

Councillor Bettison OBE delivered a vote of thanks to the retiring Mayor, Councillor Mrs McKenzie-Boyle.

The retiring Mayor, Councillor Mrs McKenzie-Boyle, in her response thanked officers and Members of the Council for their support during the last year. She reflected that it had been a privilege to be part of the opening of the Lexicon, Marks and Spencer and Coral Reef as well as events such as a 100^th birthday celebration and the opening of the Birch Hill climbing frame as each event was important. A highlight had been the Mayor’s Business Forum on Apprentices which had been such a success. She thanked her consort, Bruce McKenzie-Boyle, for all his support acting amongst other things as photographer, driver, Facebook administrator and advisor. She concluded that it had been a wonderful year with Bracknell truly being a borough of opportunity.

Councillor Mrs McKenzie-Boyle was presented with the badge of Immediate Past Mayor by the Chief Executive together with a gift on behalf of the Council.

It was proposed by the Mayor and seconded by Councillor Bettison OBE that Councillor Mrs McKenzie be appointed Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2018 – 2019.

There being no further nominations, it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Mrs McKenzie be appointed Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2018 - 2019.

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

The Deputy Mayor announced that her husband, Roy McKenzie, would be her Consort for her term of office. The Deputy Mayor thanked the Council for her appointment and said she was looking forward to supporting the Mayor to represent the Council across the borough.

ADJOURNMENT

The Council meeting was adjourned for 10 minutes to allow for photographs to be taken.

The Mayor announced that his chosen charity for the year would be Mencap and that his Chaplain would come from the Bracknell Team Ministry but was yet to be appointed. He also announced that he would be asking his Mayor’s Poet to record the year’s events through poetry but that she would be properly introduced at a future meeting.

Opening of new Council Chamber and celebrating the Council’s first 20 years as a unitary authority

CouncillorBettison OBE, Leader of the Council, asked the meeting to join him in celebrating both the first meeting in the new Council Chamber and that it was twenty years since the Council became a Unitary Authority. He reported that the Council continued to be held up as a exemplar local authority winning awards, achieving successful inspections and acting as a mentor to other Councils. He shared with the meeting images of the original tree planting in 1998 in each town and parish area as well as the town centre. Trees had been planted across the borough and local members would be invited to formal planting events to mark the occasion. He believed that they were the first Council in the country to have an asymmetrical Council Chamber design which ensured that the public were able to see proceedings and that the new design brought the forest into the room. The Leader congratulated the project team for the innovative use of space within the building which had created an enhanced suite of meeting rooms.

The Mayor unveiled a plaque commemorating the opening the new Council Chamber and celebrating the Council’s first 20 years serving Bracknell Forest residents as a unitary authority.

Move to Time Square

Councillor McCracken, Executive Member for Culture, Resources and Public Protection thanked the project team for their hard work moving offices from Easthampstead House to Time Square. He highlighted in particular Kamay Toor, Head of Strategic Asset Management; Matt Howlett, Transport & Support Services Manager and Claire Garton, Transformation Project Manager. He also thanked members of the Civic Accommodation Working Group for their input, time and effort supporting the project.

Larchwood Shortbreak Unit

CouncillorDr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning, was pleased to report that Larchwood had achieved an outstanding ofsted rating and he congratulated the whole team. He quoted the assessment which observed ‘highly effective services which consistently exceeded good’.

Foster Carers Fortnight

CouncillorDr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning, advised the meeting that the craze of stone painting had successfully promoted foster caring in Bracknell Forest via 300 painted rocks hidden around the Look Out.

Congratulations to Councillor Ms Ashman (née Miller)

The Mayor congratulated Councillor Ms Ashman on the birth of her daughter, Sofia, on 7 May 2018 and looked forward to congratulating her in person when she returned to the Chamber.

This report asks the Council to note:

a) the Members appointed by the Leader to serve on the Executive for the 2018/19 Municipal Year;

b) the appointment of Executive Committees, Sub-Committees and Advisory Panels; and

c) the appointments by the Leader to external organisations

Members of the Executive

The Leader of the Council announced that he had appointed the following Members

to the Executive for the 2018/2019 Municipal Year:

Appointments to Executive Committees, Sub Groups and Advisory Panels

The Leader of the Council announced that he had made appointments to Committees of the Executive and its Advisory Panels (Annex A to these minutes).

Appointment of Members to External Organisations

The Leader of the Council announced that he had made appointments to external

organisations, whose functions solely related to the Executive (Annex B to these

minutes).

This report asks Council to agree:

a) the establishment and membership of Committees;

b) appointments to External Organisations;

c) the appointment of Council Champions.

The Council considered the report to establish Committees and their membership, agree appointments to External Organisations and the appointment of Council Champions. It was noted that there were two changes in the External Organisation 2018/19:  the representative for the Federation of Burial Cremation Authorities should read Councillor Mrs Mattick and the Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee was now known as Heathrow Community Engagement Board.

On the proposition of Councillor Bettison OBE, Leader of the Council, seconded by Councillor Birch, it was:

RESOLVED that:

i)              ordinary committees are established and their size and allocation of seats agreed as a local variation to the proportionality rules, as set out in paragraph 6 of the agenda report;

ii)             the Licensing and Safety Committee and the Overview and Scrutiny Commission are established, their size and allocation of seats be agreed as a local variation to the proportionality rules, as set out in paragraph 6 of the agenda report;

iii)            the membership of each committee be agreed, in accordance with Members’ wishes (as set out in Annex A to these minutes);

iv)           appointments to external organisations be agreed  (as set out in Annex B to these minutes); and

v)            the appointment of Council Champions, in accordance with Part 1 Section 7 of the Constitution be agreed.