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 Bettison OBE, and seconded by Councillor Birch, that Councillor Ms Merry be elected Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2021 – 2022.

There being no further nominations it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Ms Merry be elected Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the 2021 - 2022 Municipal Year.

Councillor Ms Merry made the Declaration of Acceptance of Office of Mayor and thanked Members of the Council for her election. The Chief Executive confirmed he would organise for the declaration to be signed safely.

THE MAYOR, COUNCILLOR MS MERRY, IN THE CHAIR

In her acceptance speech Councillor Ms Merry reflected that during a difficult year she had seen Bracknell Forest residents and organisations supporting each other and really putting the community before self. She considered it an honour and a privilege to represent Bracknell Forest residents by wearing the Mayoral badge.

The Mayor gave special thanks to Councillor Mrs Mattick, her Mayoress and Councillor Gbadebo, her Deputy plus past Mayors Councillor Mrs McKenzie, Mrs McKenzie-Boyle, Mrs Hayes MBE and Finch who had given their time and energy to support the Civic team. She also thanked her Mayoral Support Officer for managing the virtual engagements and successfully adapting to the new different. She thanked officers and councillors for their contributions to the success of virtual full council meetings. She concluded that she really valued her Chaplain Father Guy’s contribution to the Borough.

It was proposed by the Mayor and seconded by Councillor Bettison OBE that Councillor Gbadebo be appointed Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2021 – 2022.

There being no further nominations, it was

RESOLVED that Councillor Gbadebo be appointed Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest for the Municipal Year 2021 - 2022.

Councillor Gbadebo made the Declaration of Acceptance of Office of Deputy Mayor. The Chief Executive confirmed that he would arrange for this to be signed safely.

The Deputy Mayor thanked the Council for his appointment and said he was looking

forward to continuing to support the Mayor to represent the Council across the borough.

Covid safe at the Lexicon

The Mayor advised the meeting that along with Councillor Brunel-Walker, Executive Member for Economic Regeneration she had visited the Lexicon to hand out Covid packs containing a face mask and hand-sanitiser. She was pleased to see the Lexicon busy with the return of the vegan market.   

Citizenship Ceremonies

The Mayor was pleased to report that she had participated in two remote Citizenship Ceremonies. She thanked the Registration Services team for facilitating these online. She reflected it was a pleasure and privilege to attend such occasions to personally welcome the borough’s new citizens.

Mayoral year 2021-22

The Mayor would use the announcements at the next Council meeting to provide more details of her plans for the year.

This report asks the Council to note:

a)    the Members appointed by the Leader to serve on the Executive for the 2021/22 Municipal Year;

b)    arrangements for decisions after 7 May 2021;

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

d)    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 2021 - 2022 Municipal Year:

Delegation of Executive Functions

The Leader of the Council announced that the responsibility for the discharge of

Executive functions was as set out in Part 2, Section 5 of the Council’s Constitution.

The Leader advised the meeting that he had delegated all Executive decisions to the relevant Executive portfolio holder, following consultation with the full Executive, until December 2021 or unless he decided to either extend or end this delegation before that time.

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 the Council to agree:

a)    the establishment and membership of Committees;

b)    appointments to External Organisations;

c)     the appointment of Council Champions; and

d)    arrangements for meetings after 7 May 2021.

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

RESOLVED that:

2.1       the establishment of committees and the appointment of councillors to sit on them is agreed as follows:

(a)            That the establishment of ordinary committees, their size and allocation of seats, agreeing a local variation to the proportionality rules, is agreed as set out in paragraph 5 of the report

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

(c)            That the establishment of Appeal Panels as required are agreed as set out in paragraph 5 of the report

(d)            That the membership of each committee, in accordance with political groups’ wishes is agreed (Annex A to these minutes)

(e)            That appointments to external organisations are agreed (Annex B to these minutes)

(f)             That the appointment of Council Champions is agreed, in accordance with Part 1 Section 7 of the Constitution as set out below:

Commuters’ Champion – Cllr Atkinson

Large Business Champion – Cllr Bhandari

Small Business Champion – Cllr Wade

Older People’s Champion – Cllr Ms Gaw

Voluntary Sector Champion – Cllr MJ Gibson

2.2       arrangements for meetings are agreed as follows:

(a)            That from 7 May 2021 all non-executive decision-making to be delegated to the Chief Executive, who is authorised to delegate further if appropriate. All delegations and decisions to be reported to all councillors in due course.

(b)            That all meetings will continue to take place virtually, noting that decision-making committees will meet informally to advise the Chief Executive of the committee’s views before the Chief Executive takes a decision that would otherwise be reserved to the committee, as set out in detail in section 6 of the report

(c)            That if a committee advises the Chief Executive that an officer recommendation would not be supported, a quorate meeting of the committee will be held as soon as practicable to determine the matter in a covid-secure venue

(d)            That these arrangements would remain in place until 31 December 2021 unless the Council decided to extend them for a further period or to end them earlier

(e)            That these arrangements would be reviewed by the end of July

(f)             That the six-month councillor attendance rule as set out in the Local Government Act 1972, s85, be suspended for 12 months from the date of this Annual Meeting of the Council