Agenda item

Announcements

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 invited Members to join her at the following civic events:

 

·                The Fly the Flag ceremony on Monday 25th June at 10.00 am.  Participants would be invited to join the Mayor and representatives of the Royal British Legion for tea and biscuits after the ceremony.

·                Armed Forces Day on 30th June.  Participants were invited to arrive at the Town Hall for a salute at 11.45 before proceeding to the war memorial for a service.  Refreshments would be available at St Stephen’s Church from 12.30 onward.

·                Tea Parties.  Following national Volunteering Week the excellent contribution of local volunteers to the community had been highlighted.  The Mayor would be hosting tea parties to celebrate the work of volunteers.  Members were invited to nominate volunteers and community groups to attend these tea parties.  The first such event would host the Redditch Association for the Blind.

·                The Civic Dinner was due to take place on 2nd March 2019.  This would have a military theme and all Members would be welcome to attend.

·                The Mayor was due to hold a bag packing and car washing event and would welcome assistance with this.

·                The Great Redditch Bake Off would be taking place and contributions would be requested.

·                The Mayor was also planning to hold a Christmas quiz.

 

The Mayor advised that she would circulate a list of her engagements to date after the meeting. 

 

During consideration of this item the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Roger Bennett, was invited to provide an update in respect of a recent official visit that had taken place to Redditch’s twin town, Gruchet-Le-Valasse in France.  Councillor Bennett had participated in this visit alongside a group of representatives from Redditch, which had coincided with the 25 year anniversary of the towns’ twinning arrangements.  In honour of this occasion Councillor Bennett had been presented with a picture by the Mayor of Gruchet-Le-Valasse and he requested that this be placed on public display in a Council building.

 

b)        The Leader’s Announcements

 

The Leader advised that he had been very busy since he was elected Leader of the Council in May 2018 and had attended a lot of meetings.  The following meetings that he had attended with external partners were highlighted for Members’ consideration:

 

·                The Worcestershire Leaders’ Board.  The Leader had chaired a meeting of this Board in Redditch, which had provided him with an opportunity to meet with the Leaders of the other Councils in Worcestershire.  Michelle McKay, Chief Executive at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHT), had attended this meeting.  She had provided an update to those present in respect of the trust’s workforce recruitment plan, operational performance, the quality of services, finances, including capital funding, age population profiles and bed availability.  Whilst there had been some improvements to the services provided by the trust Ms McKay had been clear that further changes were needed.  The Leader advised that he would work with the lead Portfolio Holder for health, Councillor Prosser, to meet with the Chief Operating Officer of the Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to address the position of local health services further.

·                West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Board.    The Leader had attended the latest meeting of this board and was keen to work closely with Councillor Bush, as the relevant Portfolio Holder, to align the Council’s economic priorities with those of the emerging industrial strategy for the West Midlands region.

·                The WMCA Non-Constituents meeting, which had been chaired by the Leader.  He advised that he would be encouraging partners to consider the position of all members of the WMCA, both constituent and non-constituent members, in order to achieve the level of economic growth needed in the West Midlands region.  The Leader welcomed a recent announcement that Redditch would receive £175,000 over four years as part of the WMCA’s Employment Support Pilot and he noted that he was eager to make sure that Redditch continued to receive its fair share of funding.

·                Meeting with the Leader of Stratford-on-Avon District Council.  During this meeting the Redditch Gateway and Alexandra Hospital had been discussed.

·                Meeting with the Leader of Worcestershire County Council.  The Leaders had discussed plans to unlock Redditch as well as the potential to work more closely together in respect of the regeneration of Redditch town centre.  As part of these discussions the Leader had asked the Leader of Worcestershire County Council to consider match funding the £200,000 that Redditch Borough Council had agreed to invest in this.

 

c)    Chief Executive’s Announcements

 

The Chief Executive confirmed that he had no announcements to make at this meeting.