To consider Announcements under Procedure Rule 10:
a) Mayor’s Announcements
b) The Leader’s Announcements
c) Chief Executive’s Announcements.
Minutes:
a) Mayor’s Announcements
The Mayor circulated a list of civic events which she and the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Nina Wood-Ford, had attended since the previous meeting of Council (Appendix 1). The Mayor took the opportunity to thank the Deputy Mayor for her hard work and support during the period.
b) The Leader’s Announcements
The Leader advised that he had attended a number of events since the previous meeting of Council. In addition to those which had been highlighted by the Mayor in her announcements the Leader provided the following updates to Council:
· The Leader had attended the carols at the bandstand event, which had transferred to St Stephen’s Church due to the inclement weather.
· In addition the Leader had attended the Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcomes Refugees Christmas Party, the Hereford and Worcester Sports Awards in Worcester and the Redditch Gudwara at Ridgeway School.
· There had been a bench dedication service for the 37 Signal Regiment at Plymouth Road Memorial Gardens which the Leader had attended.
· The Annual Conference of the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) had been held and this had been attended by the Leader.
· The Leader had participated in the Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations. The guest speaker in 2018 had been Mr Carl Wilkins who had spoken about his experiences during the genocide in Rwanda.
· Reservist Major Sandy Hennis, from Redditch, had participated in the British Army’s Expedition Ice Maiden. This was an all-women initiative which had involved the participants crossing the Antarctic. The Leader had sent Major Hennis a letter of congratulations and had invited her to the Town Hall to provide an opportunity to congratulate her in person.
· The Leader had attended an Economic Development seminar which had been held at the Palace Theatre and had been organised by the North Worcestershire Economic Development Unit. This formed part of the “opening doors” initiative, designed to provide local school children with an opportunity to find out about different careers and areas of industry.
During this period the Peer Review Challenge had taken place. This challenge had been organised by the Local Government Association (LGA) and involved senior officers and Councillors from other local authorities and the LGA reviewing Redditch Borough Council and Bromsgrove District Council from 22nd to 24th January 2018. Members had been invited to attend a number of the sessions that had been held as part of this process and it was anticipated that a report detailing the outcomes of the challenge would be available for Members to consider in late February.
The latest review of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHT) had been published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 17th January 2018. This had identified some improvements in service delivery, though the trust continued to be classified as inadequate. In response to this report the Leader had issued a press release calling for an opportunity to meet with representatives of both the trust and Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). It was understood that there would be further inspections and reviews of the Trust, starting in February.
c) Chief Executive’s Announcements
There were no announcements from the Deputy Chief Executive.