To receive such announcements as may be made by the Mayor.
Minutes:
The Mayor :-
1. Informed Members of the results of the election for the Crewe South Ward, where Councillors Dorothy Flude and Steven Hogben were elected. He noted that Cllr Flude had offered her apologies for the meeting and welcomed Cllr Hogben to his first Cheshire East Council meeting.
2. Reported that he had attended a large number of engagements in the last two months. One particularly memorable event had been the lighting of the Olympic flame for the special Olympics and then, later in the month, the extinguishing of the flame. The Cheshire East team had won ten gold, five silver and five bronze medals and he had been delighted to attend.
3. Announced that, earlier in the week, several venues in Cheshire East had the honour of being visited by Their Royal Highnesses, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. He was at Macclesfield to greet the Duke and show him some of the installations to mark the town’s 750th Charter. The Deputy Mayor had welcomed the Duchess to Queens Park, where she had met some veterans and members of Friends of Queens Park. The Royal couple were reunited at the RHS Show at Tatton Park, where they visited the Cheshire East floral bed, which had Queens Park as its theme.
4. Announced that the previous week had seen the launch of the Place Shaping Consultation, which asked for views on how the Council could improve its towns and villages, over the next 20 years. The results would help to prepare the new development plan for Cheshire East – the Local Development Framework. Everyone who lived or worked in Cheshire East had been invited to complete the questionnaire and let the Council know what they liked about their town and what they wanted to see improved. More information was available via a series of exhibitions, which were in all the major towns in Cheshire East and on the Council’s website.
5. Was delighted to announced that Cheshire East Adult Services had won the "Personalisation and Choice Achievement of the Year" awarded at the Municipal Journal (MJ) National Awards 2011, which was a prestigious national competition. Cheshire East were one of six finalist, of which two got Highly Commended but Cheshire East took the award. The award reflected the work of Adult Services in modernising personal care and the support given by Corporate colleagues. The Mayor congratulated all those staff involved.
6. Was pleased to announce that Cheshire East Council won 2 Gold medals at the RHS show at Tatton – Gold for the Queens Park Flower Bed and Gold for Tatton's Japanese Garden . He congratulated all those staff involved.
He also announced that it was the centenary of the Japanese garden,
at Tatton park and that the Japanese Ambassador would be visiting the
garden, where the Mayor would meet him, on the following
day.
7. Referred to various news bulletins, throughout the day, relating to the
publication of a serious case review by the Cheshire East Safeguarding
Children Board.
8. Announced that the formal feedback from OFSTED, on the effectiveness of Cheshire East’s safeguarding and support,
provided to cared for children, had been positive.
9. Informed Members that he had agreed to an additional item being added to the agenda for the meeting, due to the resignation of the Health and Wellbeing Portfolio Holder and the requirement for the Leader of the Council, under the Constitution, to make an announcement to Council about changes to his Cabinet.
He was satisfied of the special circumstances of this matter, which
justified this urgent item being added to the agenda and that the
provisions of S100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 had been
met. The reason for the urgency was the need to ensure seamless
continuity of Portfolio Holder cover in respect of the currently vacant
Health and Wellbeing Portfolio.
This item would be dealt with immediately after item 6 of the agenda:
“Public Speaking Time”.
.