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[BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] Please can I ask you to stand if you're able, and join me in civic prayers which this morning will be conducted by Father Jeremy Chi of Saint Peter's Church, Swinton. Thank you. I'm so this morning. First of all, we give thanks for all that has happened in terms of our city, in terms of community flourishing and thriving. During council of adults here as ceremonial mayor, we pray also for all the activities that the incoming ceremonial mayor, Councillor Tanya Vurch, will undertake. That they may lead to senses of community cohesion and thriving and flourishing. Almighty God, from whom comes every good and perfect gift, grant those who hold office in this city the spirit of justice and truth, of wisdom and charity. But mindful of their responsibility and the needs of those they serve, they may promote the true welfare of your people and advance your kingdom on earth, for you live and reign forever and ever. And we pray, O God, for those who hold office in the life of this city and for all who work for this council, for all who in various ways serve the community. That for filling their duties with singleness of purpose, they may wisely and faithfully exercise the administration committed to them and promote the common good that at last we may all reach the heavenly city which is above through Jesus Christ our Lord. And at this time of so much international tension, we pray for the peace of the world and for the peace of nations. For peace in the communities of the Holy Land, for peace and stability for the peoples of Sudan and South Sudan, for peace and stable government in Haiti, for peace and relief from famine in Yemen, for peace and justice in Ukraine. God of the nations whose kingdom rules over all have mercy on our broken and divided world. Shed a broad your peace in the hearts of men, women and children, and banish from them the spirit that makes for war, that all races and peoples may learn to live as members of one family and in obedience to your home to peace and goodwill, for you live and reign one God forever and ever. And in a moment of quiet, we pray for those in particular difficulty at this time, for those known to us who are in sickness or distress or despair. For the morning and the bereaved and the recently departed. Heavenly Father bring comfort where there is distress and new hope where it seems to have left. For you are the lover of all that you have made, and you want to call us to know that love. For you are God forever and ever. Amen. Thank you Father she will just allow a few minutes for people to return to the chain. Please be seated. [Silence] [Silence] [Silence] Right, before we start the meeting can I ask you all to stand if you're able and join me in a minute silence and reflection for the approximately 1 million people who were victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tootsie and Rwanda. One of the most notorious and horrific modern genocides. Thank you members. [Silence] [Silence] [Silence] Good morning everyone including those who are watching proceedings via the webcast. Can I welcome you all to this annual meeting of Salted City Council and I'd like to particularly welcome newly elected members and congratulate you all and to congratulate everybody. Who was re-elected. [Silence] So item one is election of the ceremonial mayor and deputy ceremonial mayor for the municipal year 2024-25. While the formal installation of both the incoming ceremonial mayor and the deputy ceremonial mayor will take place at a separate meeting this afternoon, there's a legal requirement for us to make the appointments to these positions as the first items of business. So with this in mind and for all the statements in support of the nominees please can those be reserved till this afternoon. So can I now ask in relation to the ceremonial mayor do we have a nominee to be appointed to the office of ceremonial mayor for the municipal year 2024-25. Thank you. Do we have a seconder? Councillor Ilaria Assumo, thank you. So is that agreed? Right, so I duly declare Councillor Tanya Birch elected to the office of ceremonial mayor for the municipal year 24-25. [Applause] If we move on to the deputy ceremonial mayor, so do we have a nominee to be appointed to the office of deputy ceremonial mayor, Councillor Maria Brabina? Councillor Heather Fletcher. Oh, right, Councillor Fletcher, thank you. Do we have a seconder? Thank you, Councillor John Warsham. So, Councillor Heather Fletcher has been nominated to be appointed to the office of deputy ceremonial mayor for the municipal year 2024-25. Is that agreed? [Applause] So I duly declare Councillor Heather Fletcher elected to the office of deputy ceremonial mayor for 24-25. So, as I've said earlier, both these elections will be revisited at this afternoon separate meeting where the traditional proceedings will take place. Item two, announcements of special business have not been notified of any items of special business. Apologies, do we have any apologies for today's meeting? Yes, we have apologies from Councillors Bellamy, Burch, Emma Kamel, Nelson, Roland, Wayne, Warner and Charlotte Yald. OK, thank you. Oh, Councillor Saunders. OK, thank you, did you get that mic? Yes. Any more? No. OK, thank you. Any declarations of interest? If you have, can you please declare these now? Councillor Wolters. Yeah, item six, one in the effects of my group more than other groups. So item six, one. OK, thank you. Can you catch that? Yeah. OK, so consideration of an, so we're, sorry, we're on to item. Yes. Oh, Councillor. Thank you. Just declaring a personal interest in the absence of Emma Kamel. OK, thank you. So item five meeting, minutes of the meeting held on the 20th of March, 2020, 2024. So we have, everyone hopefully has read the minutes of the meeting. Oh, the minutes agreed. OK, thank you, members. Item six, consideration of any business remaining from the previous meeting. So the income and ceremonial measures considered the matters listed on the agenda at this item. And in accordance with paragraph 10 of the Council meeting procedure rules, have agreed that they'll be brought back to an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday the 19th of June at half nine. So that moves us on to item seven, results of the local elections. And can I ask the chief executive as a returning officer to present this report? Thank you, Madam Mayor. The report speaks for itself when I offer my congratulations to all of the members who turned at the local elections in May. Thank you. Thank you. So do we have a proposal in seconder? Councillor Barnes and Councillor Hamilton. So we have a proposal in seconders, so I'll open the matter for debate if any members wish to speak. Councillor Dickman. Thanks, sir. No, I just wanted to use opportunities just to say thanks to Tom and all the staff throughout the count. Jackie, Sarah, Elliot, Alison, Ben, all from the elections office and anyone who have missed who made the polling day and the counts over the several days. A great success, I think. And also wanted to welcome all the new and returning Councillors to the Chamber, specifically those who are coming to the Labor Ventures. The returning is only Davis, Brendan Kevil, Jackie Faye, Sue Matthews and James Brady. Thank you, Councillor Dickman. Councillor BUNGING. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This I too would like to add our thanks to the returning officer and to Sarah, Elliot and the rest of their team. As in they did a marvellous job, it was a long run out process this year. As long as I think I have known, certainly had salted. I'm sure we'll have many discussions about that as the weeks go by. But nevertheless, I did all the disputes and there were no hiccups. So thank you to all those who were involved, and also thank you to all the staff at the polling stations, and also to those counting the votes. Again, it's a long day for them, and we do appreciate the way they pretend. I would also like to thank the new members, but of course, Pacific reference to the Conservatives. I'm really pleased to welcome back my Deputy Councillor Clark, with, I think, probably the biggest majority of it. And that has to achieve, I think, in the present climate. And also to welcome back their Councillors on this, who has also achieved a good majority, and I'm sure that reflects him out of work that he's done in the community. I will also welcome the Labour members, and I hope they also enjoy being on the Council, and may even support some of our resolutions from time to time. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Robin Garoudo. So, nobody else wishing to speak. So, it moves us to item 8, notification of appointment of the Cabinet 2024-25, and I'll bring you the City Mayor to address you on this. Thank you very much, ceremonial Mayor. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position today to be able to disclose to you exactly who is going to be in the mayoral team for the next municipal year and their roles and responsibilities. I'm sure colleagues can appreciate the amount of work that goes in, fallen the elections to undertake committee placement outside bodies, as well as the conversations that need to be had with members of the mayoral teams in terms of changes to their roles and responsibilities on the City Council. Those conversations are things I take really seriously, and I think it's right and proper to give them the time and the due diligence that they rightly deserve to ensure that we have the absolute best executive serving the City Council in our city. So, if the Council will indulge me, I will provide you with an update as soon as I possibly can when those conversations have concluded. Just to be clear as well, it isn't a requirement for us to actually have the mayoral team today here at full Council. I do try to make that happen in the interest of everyone, so we all understand people's roles and responsibilities, and it's right and proper moving into the municipal year, the new municipal year that we try and achieve that. But I think on this occasion, given the changes that I will be making and obviously thinking about delivering this manifesto, it's critical we get this right. So, please bear with me, and I will update you in due course. Thank you very much. Thank you, City Mayor. So, we're on item 9, membership of committees and panels, including the appointments of chairs and deputy chairs for the newly support year, 2024, 5, Councillor Barnes. Did you get that? Yeah. So, Councillor Bellarmet has asked to come up equal opportunities. Councillor Rockweller is going on to planning and transportation and audit and accounts. And Councillor Neil Reynolds is being replaced by Councillor Augustong Community and Neighbroughs. Okay. Thank you, Councillor Barnes. Yeah. So, we've got the proposal. Is there a second? Oh, yeah. Councillor Robin Greedo. Thank you, Your Honor. I also want to see minor amendments on the licensing and safety regulation panel. We are entitled to two representatives during addition to Councillor Turner. We want to include the name of Councillors. And this is a relation to great and prosperity. We have been reduced to a fortnight, I have to say, very reduced to one member, because of the rate of the calculations I carried out. So, in place of myself, I want to include the name of Councillor Baw. That's all, thank you. Okay, thank you, Councillor Robin Greedo. Councillor Neil Reynolds. Thank you, Chair. I welcome being with nobody moving from communities and neighbourhoods. I would just like to ask the Chief Whip, which communities Committee on will be on. Absolutely. I will vote later on that. Thank you. Councillor Walton. Yeah, thank you, Chair. I wish to move a amendment to the motion. We are a group with another second largest opposition group in this chamber. Yet, the second largest opposition group in this chamber, we are nearly 50% of the size of the official opposition. And yet, whilst the official opposition has received two spaces on agenda setting, we have received none. Whilst the official opposition has received both a chair position and a vice chair position on scrutiny committees, we have received none. Whilst the overview and scrutiny committee has leader of the opposition and doesn't provide explicitly the official opposition, we have received none. Therefore, I move in the section entitled Community and Neighbourhood Scrutiny to substitute the words vice chair Saunders and to replace that with vice chair Walters. In the section entitled overview and scrutiny 11, substitute 12 in place of 11, and after nine labour two conservative append one unwipped. And in the list of members append Walters unwipped and in Council agenda setting group, after two labour members, two conservative members append one unwipped member, I'm asking also for a recorded vote on this amendment. And if the amendment doesn't pass and I vote against the substantive motion, the implications of a non-unanimous vote are to have legal implications because it means we have to stick strictly to the letter of the 1989 Act and variations are not allowed if it's not unanimous. I therefore move and I believe we have a second. Thank you. So with Councilor Halpern, you're seconding. Right, so we've got the proposal and seconder for an amendment that you've all heard. So I'll open. Apologies, we have to have a seconder for the original proposal, and then move back to the amendment. So Councilor Mullen is seconding the original proposal. Right, so we've now had the amendment put before you with the proposal and seconder, so I'm opening up that amendment to debate. And then we'll have a name vote. Council agreed. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm despite the loss of words, which is illegal for me. I don't quite think that Council waters understand how Councils are composed. And it relies on the number of Councillors that you elect. The more Councillors you elect, the more positions you're entitled to. Council waters new group, I have difficulty calling it a group, but Council waters new and rich group has less than 50% actually, of the official position, and can certainly less of course, than they can throw in the Labour group. You earn those positions. You earn them by working in the community. You earn them by being elected. And Council waters achieve at least as many seats as we have in war, which I think is extremely unlikely. Then you can come back and start asking for more seats. At this point in time, we're called Secretary of Government. The amendment will be based against it. Thank you, Councillor Robin Garriedo, City Mayor. Thank you very much, ceremonial Mayor. It's really interesting to hear what Councillor Walters has said, but also to hear what Councillor Garriedo has said, because anyone who's just spotted what he said earlier with regards to allocation of seats on committees will have picked up. He said it was the calculation, the methodology, and that was to blame. It wasn't the fact that the Conservative group have lost a seat on the City Council. So for me, there's something about integrity and honesty and consistency here. Because obviously, Councillor Greedo has just gone on to highlight that the Liberal Democrats need to win more seats to be afforded what is obviously seen as a privilege here. So let's be consistent. Let's act with integrity and honesty, because I think public office requires that of all of us in all that we do, both within this Chamber and outside of this Chamber. But responding to Councillor Walters, I think this is important. So it's really interesting that you've formed a group, because prior to this group being formed, I will remind Councillor. The Liberal Democrats refuse to take up seats within this City Council's committees. They refused to be duly involved in the governance of this City Council. But clearly, Councillor Walters is an alchemist, because he's worked his magic. Because now, all of a sudden, we have the Liberal Democrat party suddenly becoming enlightened and wanting now, all of a sudden, to contribute to life in this City Council and in this City. In terms of the two committees, he's referenced, I think you should all be aware, they are not standing committees of this City Council. So they're there for a period of time, and then they will cease in a sense to exist, certainly in terms of the constitutional committee. Councillor Gender's setting, as you know, is something that we do, but it's not a requirement of legislation to do it. It's good practice. So in terms of the motion that's being considered here, I want you to be cognizant of that. But I have to say, what we've witnessed this morning, unfortunately, is a complete lack of integrity, consistency and honesty. And I think, you know, we should all go away and have a little think about some of this. Thank you very much. Thank you, City Mayor. Does anybody want to speak on this before we move to the vote? Councillor HOWARD. Thank you, Chair. The duty of the opposing groups is to hold those in power to account as simple as that. Out of the causal, if we were granted the one extra position, specifically on the Gender's setting forum, would not take any positions away from the Conservative group. It would not take any positions away from the Labour group. It would just involve us in the Gender's setting process as a chamber. It's a very simple request. It's not unreasonable. It's not disproportionate. And I'd like members to take that into account when going for this amendment. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Okay. Thank you, Councillor HOWARD. Councillor SON, there's... Oh, so, Councillor HOWARD seems to be putting a completely different amendment to what has been proposed. He seems to be now asking simply to go on the Council agenda committee, which is very different to what we've been asked to vote on. No, I think that this is a part of the amendment. Councillor SON, does that understand it? Councillor WOLTER. Thank you, Chair. Just to respond to comments from Councillor GRIDOW, first of all, I haven't asked for any larger number of positions than we are entitled to by legislation. It is the particular allocations that we are referring to. Going back on the city mayor, city mayor seems to have confused the name of our party. So, we are actually the unwipped party rather than... Although we comprise members, the unwipped group and we're welcome to take people from any and other previous parties. For example, people wish to say what they think, because instead of me having to say what everyone else is thinking, but they're not allowed to say, if you were to join me, you'd be able to say it yourselves. But, city mayor, I didn't mention anything about the constitutional review group in my amendment. I was talking about the standing committees, particularly the vice chair of community and neighbors and the overview and scrutiny. So, these were two main ones I have mentioned as well as the agenda setting group. So, it was those two statutory committees, particularly the overview and scrutiny of which group leaders are entitled to. There's nothing in the constitution giving any preferential rights whatsoever to the so-called official opposition, with the exception of the right to speak for 15 minutes after the city mayor. That's the only privilege in the constitution. [ Inaudible ] I just think council will need to understand as well. The request with regards to the vice chair and the chair of committees is something I've actually acted on. So, following that request from council of alters and the unwit coalition of parties, it would seem, and individuals, you know, the party of parties. I did actually email the conservative group, the conservative leader, and I copied in the unwit group, and I asked them to discuss amongst themselves whether or not the conservative group would be willing to give up either the vice chair or the chair of a committee, and I think the outcome of that was that they weren't. So, I just want everyone to know that I have acted on that request before this meeting today. Thank you. Thank you, city mayor, council of alters. Thank you, chair. And I do appreciate the city mayor did make the maximum effort in order to request for the conservative group to give up their vice chairmanship. Again, we're not asking for the chairmanship. We appreciate they are the official opposition, despite the fact that it gives them no privilege whatsoever rather than being able to speak after the city mayor, and any alleged privileges are alleged and so-called and how they want them to be described. However, the conservative party simply said no, and therefore it's for this chamber to decide if we want to give the conservative party those rights or all that privilege to other people. Thank you, chair. Okay, thank you, council of alters. No deals which is to speak. I'm going to move to a named vote for foreign against on the amendment. City Mayor Paul, don't it? Okay. Councilor Sumu? Okay. Councilor August? Okay. Councilor Barnes? Okay. Councilor Bentham? Okay. Councilor Brabina? Okay. Councilor Broklehurst? Okay. Councilor Brooks? Okay. Councilor Jim Camille? Okay. Councilor Clark? Okay. Councilor Cusack? Okay. Council Davis? Okay. Council Dawson? Okay. Council Dickman? Okay. Council Farhe? Yeah. Council Fletcher? Okay. Councilor Greedo? Yes. Councilor Gohler? Yeah. Councilor Grogan? Yeah. Councilor Hamilton? Okay. Councilor Hildron? No. Council Hines? Yeah. Councilor Kele? Yeah. Councilor Kelly? Yeah. Councilor Kele? Yeah. Councilor Kevel? Yeah. Councilor King? Yeah. Council Lancaster? Yeah. Council Lighten? All right. Councilor Matthews? Yeah. Councilor McCuska? Yeah. Councilor Mary? Yeah. Councilor Blockwary? Yeah. Councilor Moore? Yeah. So it was at Council Moore? Yeah. Council Moore? Yeah. What? What? What? Councillor Mullen? No. Councillor Collene Zeeza? No. Councillor Papper? Aye. Councillor Pappett? Aye. Councillor Prady? Aye. Councillor Neill-Angels? Aye. Councillor Robinson-Smith? No. Councillor Syed? Aye. Councillor Syed? Councillor? Yeah. Councillor Saunders? Councillor Sharma? Councillor Sharp? Aye. Councillor Chena? Aye. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Councillor Syed? Councillor Turner? Councillor Walters? Councillor Walsh? Councillor ward? Councillor Wabisham? Aye. Councillor Jack Yawd? Aye. That's three votes for and 48 against. Okay. Thank you. So the amendments has fallen. So we move back to the substantive item. We've had a proposal. Yeah. So we have a proposal and a second for that. So I'm opening it back up for debate. Again, with memberships of committees and panels. Nobody wishing to speak now. Okay. So Councils have to approve the membership of. Yeah. So sorry, we've got to have a vote for or against on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a name vote. Yeah. So were we agreed? Yeah. Sorry. I'm confusing you. Yes. Look at my vote. Be recorded as against. Okay. Okay. You will do that. Yeah. Right. So moving on to item 10 appointment of representatives to outside bodies. And I'll also continue to present this report. Okay. Thank you very much. Ceremony on there. So colleagues will know this is the membership of committees and panels and the appointments of chairs and debt chairs for the municipal year 2024, 2025. I'm not going to go through the actual report and highlight names and members. It's there for your attention and for noting. And obviously the recommendations to fall council today are to approve the allocation of committee places for politically balanced committees and panels and to appoint the membership of those committees and panels as set out in appendix one. And then the second recommendation for council is to approve the membership of other council committees and panels as set out appendix two. And obviously we know the earlier amendments that have been made by a number of parties on this fall council. So I move those recommendations. Thank you. Thank you, city mayor. So we have a proposal is the second. Thank you, Chair. I think there are a couple of emissions on this. There's no mention that can find the Northwest Regional Flood and Cultural Committee, which we have the representative on. At the same time, my name is not included under Dereve RP which I believe it should be. Thank you, Chair. Right. Thank you. So somebody going to sort that out. Yeah. Yeah. That's noted it. Right. Thank you. Councillor Rabbinger, you're down. Yeah. Thank you, Chair. I'm going to give you attention to the conservative nominations on the G.O. and Western recycling and also the substitute and the main name on the over-new and scrutiny. These are obviously nominations from us, but they do go into a decision that is very critical to groups and they're going to find the system. It doesn't actually rest with us. Okay, thank you, Councillor Rabbinger. Right. Anybody else without Councillor Saunders? Thank you. Could some in like me please. What is the difference between Dereve Brackett's sulphur, closed Brackett's group, limited, and Dereve RP, limited. The 13th have the same representatives. And you Councillor Saunders, I think the City Mayor will respond for that. Okay. I was debating how to approach this question. Do I have a bit of fun with responding to it or do I answer it down the line? But I guess I would suggest asking the leader of your group. And because my understanding is the leader of your group has served on a registered provider. And that registered provider operated a group structure. It was also a registered provider in the City of Sulford. Four beaver, four housing. The difference here is we're operating a group, but obviously because of the regulations, i.e. the regulator for social housing, you have to have a separate entity unless you want the whole thing just to be a registered provider, which is, you know, an option. But you have to have a separate entity that is regulated by the regulator for social housing. So that's one reason. The other reason why we have a separate entity is because the way to access government grant through Holmes England. So the Affordable Homes Program is through registered provider status. You can't do that just as a housing development company in and of your own rights. So for those two reasons, we operate the group structure. And it's primarily to access Affordable Homes Program grant. And then the other thing is, obviously, when we access grant, things like the right to acquire and right to share ownership or apply to the properties we build. So if you can do anything about scrapping that, given your clear interest in all of this, I would deeply appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, City Mayor. Anybody else wishing to speak? Councillor MURPHY. Sorry. Thank you, Chair. I noticed in my last item as part of my upcoming, I managed to get the Conservative group and the Labour group to actually agree with each other. So if that's the only thing I've managed to do in this chamber today, it's been worth it. I would like to point out on this particular item that from the 50 or so positions in the Labour group and three to the Conservative group, that's matched by zero to the Unwipped Group. So if that's considered to be politically proportionate, and that's considered to be fair, and this chamber has obviously expressed their opinion, so if that could be noted, thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councillor Woltz. Is Councillor MURPHY. Just an observation chair here that the Unwipped Group were whipped to vote. Point of personal explanation, Chair. Just because we agree, doesn't mean we're forced to say it. Thank you, members. So, Councils us to note and approve the appointment of the representatives to outside bodies detailed in report. Is that agreed? Yeah. Oh, sorry. We've only done a committee. Oh, I thought we were on outside bodies now. There's a separate report for that now. Yeah. Yeah, we're currently doing outside bodies. All right, so, item 10, that's what we've got down. All right. Sorry. Sorry, okay. Right. So, we agreed on that. So, if you move on to the next one. Okay. Thank you very much. So, this is the appointment of representatives to the outside bodies for 24-25 municipal year. You can see there's three recommendations this time. The previous report on committees with only two recommendations. And those recommendations of the full council to agree the combined authority appointments, the greater Manchester combined authority appointments and nominations as listed at appendix one, to note the Agma nominations as listed at appendix two is the second recommendation. And then thirdly, to note the appointment to outside bodies, non-agma appointments as listed in appendix two. I know Councillor COOZAC has already moved an amendment with regards to debris. I want to also move a further amendment in this in terms of the homes of skills and technology hosts. So, you can see we have Theresa Pepper, Councillor Theresa Pepper and Councillor Tracy Kelly on there. I'd like to remove Tracy Kelly and can we put Councillor John Mary on in place of Councillor Tracy Kelly. That is it. I move it with those recommendations. Thank you very much. All right. Is that agreed? Thank you. All right. Move on to item 11, dates of future meetings. Councils us to note the schedule of dates for meetings for the municipal year 24/25. Do we have a proposal? All right. Councillor Warsham. A seconder. Councillor had the Fletcher. Right. So we have a proposal and a seconder. Does any members wish to speak on this? No. Okay. So you were asked to note the schedule of dates. Is that agreed? Thank you. Item 12, local government act, 1974 section 85, leave of absence. City, so it seems to present this report. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This report is in accordance with Section 85 of the local government act 1972. And it's to consider an extension of the six month rule accounts for Emma Kamel on medical ground. And the proposal is that Councillor Kamel's leave of absence is extended until the 30th of September 2024. Okay. Thank you. Do we offer a proposal and seconder? Councillor Hamilton. Councillor Barnes. Anybody want to say anything on this? Councillor Robin Greedon. Good. Perhaps so. You allow me just to ask that we pass. If the British is onto, this is for all hope and see. We come to see. And if you make a good progress, I thought sorry about that. Thank you, Councillor Robin Greedon. I'm sure we all lack out of that. Those sentiments in the Chamber. So, is this agreed? Thank you. Yeah. And we wish Emma all the best. Item 13, statement of the elected city mayor. Can I ask Paul Dennett to make a statement? Okay. Thank you very much. Ceremony on there. And good morning members of the Council. So, I'm honoured that the people of Salford have put their trust in the Labour Party and myself as the city mayor for the great city of Salford for a third term. Being elected as mayor of this great city is the most rewarding experience of my life. Representing every resident and our communities in this city is a real honour and privilege. And it's one that I certainly will never take for granted. I'd also, as has already been done, like to welcome all the new members to the Council Chamber. I don't know, Councillor Dickman has named a number of them earlier. And I'm not going to name all of them. But from across the political spectrum, welcome to this city council. Welcome to this great city and the work of this great city. And I look forward to us all working to serve the interests of the people of Salford. And also, congratulations to those of you who are returning to public office. And I also would like to congratulate Councillor Les Turner. I don't know if colleagues are aware, but Councillor Les Turner not only serves on this great city council, but he's also been elected to serve on the Culture and Glazebury Parish Council, a place where he lives, he's retired, he loves the village and enjoys walking around the village. And interestingly, in some of the literature I've been able to read and witness. There's no reference in his blurb to the electorate about him serving on the city of Salford's great council. Because for me, obviously the experiences you would think Councillor Turner has derived from this would be absolutely fantastic in serving the people of Culture and Glazebury on the parish council, a parish council which levies a precept to deliver the services that that parish council delivers. So, you know, actually taxes the people for the privilege of having a parish council. So anyway, I could go on. I won't. I may be saving it for another council meeting, but all I would like to say is congratulations to Councillor Turner, unfortunately he's not here I don't think at the moment, but nevertheless all of you, well done. You've done an amazing job and let's get on with delivering for the people of our city. In all seriousness, public office for me is an honour. It's a privilege. And for each and every one of us, it's something that we ought to take exceptionally seriously. I've always passionately believed in the importance of local government and local democracy. And you know the direction of travel around devolution is something I genuinely do welcome. Decisions are best taken at the most appropriate local level. And I agree that is a contested space, but we should all fight for local government and local democracy. The work we do as the Fourth Emergency Service is absolutely critical to our residents, our families and our communities. I also believe that local Councillors, despite what Westminster and White all may think of us, play a vital role in championing our communities and also ensuring that our residents' voices are heard. And you put those voices and those communities at the heart of the City Council's decision-making. An irrespective of what party or unwit alliance you're a member of, I know that you as members of this Council will obviously do your best to serve and represent your constituents, communities and the City of Saltford. Councillor Turner, I know you've bobbed out for a moment there, but I just wanted to let you know I did congratulate you on getting elected to your parish council in culture. So congratulations, along with everybody else who's obviously, of course, absolutely. I always think of you and you always put a smile on my face as you know. Indeed. Okay, so myself and the rest of Saltford Labor Group were elected on a clear platform of delivering a greener, a fairer and a more prosperous Saltford, with exciting and ambitious proposals for our next term such as building 600 more council homes for our wholly owned housing company, Deriv, making further progress to take that control of social care. Being proud of our City's sporting heritage and delivering a rugby strategy for the City, furthering this City's progress in greening our City, our communities and neighbourhoods, planting thousands of trees and continuing our collective world to tackle the climate crisis, whilst also placing children and young people at the heart of all we do. As a City Council and working in concert with the voluntary community and social enterprise sector, businesses and partners throughout our City, delivering in the not too distant future a literacy hub for the City of Saltford and fundamentally becoming a child friendly City within this next mayoral term, a City that doesn't just say that children are our future, but actually delivers what that means in practice. These ambitious proposals are in no way exhaustive in terms of the list I've just shared with you, and they do build on our collective achievement throughout the City over the past eight years, and prior to that. And I'm looking forward to working with members, officers from across this Council within Greater Manchester, our voluntary community and social enterprise sector, our trade unions and those committed partners and businesses within our City. Because together we can get things done, the Saltford work. 2024 is also an auspicious year to be elected onto this Council, marking as it does the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Metropolitan Borough of Saltford in 1974. Over those five decades, our City Council has strived to fulfil the motto of our City, as well as popular Supreme Alex, the welfare of the people is the highest law. And I'm sure all members and officers alike will do their utmost to uphold this motto for the next 50 years at least. And not forgetting in this mayoral term in 2026, we'll also be celebrating the centenary of the City of Saltford. This indeed is an auspicious four years of another mayoral term of office. And I look forward to working with all of you to celebrate this great City and what we often refer to as the spirit of Saltford. Of course, these elections couldn't happen without the hard work of so many staff across our City Council, administering three elections simultaneously is no small tax. And my sincere thanks go to all the Council staff who've worked so hard over the selection period and have delivered yet again a really good operation in terms of the elections. Particular thanks go to Sarah Bennett, Jackie Russell and obviously Tom as our returning officer. And everyone else who's fundamentally contributed to what has been an expertly and professionally discharged process. Moving on to some other achievements, the Saltford Youth Justice Service inspection. We recently received a good, and that was from HM Inspector of Probation, with particular praise for our partnership working and its handling of out-of-court disposals. The Youth Justice Service committed to helping children achieve, including gaining qualifications. And the service was praised for promoting a child-first approach and co-creating interventions with children within the service. Thanks to Councillor Kamal and Councillor Pepper, who I know have done a sterling job in leading the work of our children's services working with Melissa, as our relatively new Director of Children's Services. And then sticking with children's services, we've had some really positive, off-dead results. So we're pleased to obviously hear that St. Ambrose Barlow, Roman Catholic High School, has progressed from requires improvement to achieving good overall in their report. And that includes an outstanding for the school's focus on personal development. And having read the report myself, it was heartening to read about how pupils at St. Ambrose are valued, they're happy, they're cared for in a safe and nurturing environment. And ultimately, the results reflect the incredibly positively culture that has been created by the staff, the governors, the families, and the pupils at the school, and everyone else who supports that school and its development journey. And that report now will complement many other really positive off-stead reports we've received at the Lowry Academy, Erlen and Callisette Academy, Co-op Academy Walkden, and the Albion Academy. It is fantastic to witness the progress we are making in what is a relatively short space of time getting our schools to good and outstanding. So well done to everybody involved. We'll also be shortly introducing a new school's attendance strategy as well as an enhanced school improvement offer. You will know from the budget setting process that we've allocated resources to facilitate this, to ensure educational standards within Salford and to continue the advancement of our children and young people's development. All this work feeds into one of Salford's labors, key manifesto pledges, which as I've said earlier, is about becoming a child friendly city. Moving on to culture, at the weekend of the election, I was lucky enough to attend sounds from the other city. A truly unique offering with a myriad of venues. It was great to see the collaboration between the City Council, the Working Class Movement Library, the University of Salford, Islington Mill, and importantly, the bringing together of local artists, creatives and makers. I've always seen art and creativity as an integral part of our economy. And we, as a City Council, need to do all we can to support artists, creatives and makers within our city. Next month, Salford hosts another great festival. We invented the weekend, and we did invent the weekend. We gave the weekend to the world thanks to the socially progressive movements that have happened in this city and in this city region over many, many years, right that were hard fought for, that weren't given by parliament or government. And that will take place on the 15th and 16th of June, and it's completely free. And again, we will be celebrating the importance of our voluntary community and social enterprise sector involving businesses and importantly involving artists, creatives and makers. It's the people, it's the ecology that really matters, demonstrating the spirit of Salford. And I'm pleased that our Council is a key supporter of both sounds of the other city, and we invented the weekend, putting our money where our mouth is and actually valuing the animation of our great City of Salford, making culture and the arts accessible for all and not the preserve of the middle classes or those who can afford it, especially within a cost of living crisis. Salford for me has a proud cultural and creative heritage, and under my morality we'll do everything we can to support and nurture our city's increasingly vibrant culture offer. Moving on, I think it's important I update Council on the sad situation of the fire at Clarendon Leisure Centre. Everyone here, the Council, the community, leisure, organisation and the wider community as well, and I know this because residents are supposed to be directly really saddened to see the reports of the major fire at Clarendon Leisure Centre. A part of the city where we know we have challenges and a part of the city where leisure facilities are desperately needed. As we know, the incident took place overnight and it caused significant damage to the building. Emergency services were called and the fire and rescue service dealt with the blaze very professionally and bravely, and my thanks and appreciation go to everyone who worked on this as well as those who supported the community afterwards. Our teams have made the area secure and the fencing is around the building and it does remain closed. We've now also, as a city council, instructed for the full demolition of the pool area of the centre, simply because this part of the building is too damaged to rescue and it's actually unsafe as well as clearly being an ISOL. Once the demolition of the pool area's complete investigation work will obviously continue, so we can understand the level of the damage that the fire is caused to the whole of the centre and what this means for the future ultimately of that leisure facility in that part of the city. I think it's really sad news for everyone who uses the centre. We understand the importance of leisure facilities in that part of the city and we know it was so well-liked and it provided sports and leisure opportunities for generations of local people who've lived there for most of their lives, if not all their lives. So, we, the city council working with SOFR community leisure will continue to obviously keep you as members informed and provide updates on the situation as soon as possible. Obviously, we are in the middle of a fire and police investigation to try and understand why this happened and then obviously the conversations about insurance which will require this report to have been completed, so we will keep you updated in due course. Finally, unfortunately, due to diary clashes with the NHS, I'm not going to be able to make the council meeting where the council of Reynolds will be passing on the baton to Councillor Burch, but Gina, it's been great to witness and work with you in your ceremonial mayor year serving the city of Salford, its residents and its communities. And I know you've served those residents and those communities for many more years than just this ceremonial year. Nearly 20 years you've served on this city council, offering your expertise to a number of different roles from scrutiny chair, exec support to lead member for adult services and obviously you've supported your charities, St Anne's Hospice, Start Agnes Hopkins Community Centre and you have raised an incredible amount of money. I couldn't believe it when I was told. So £44,000 £425 pounds, that deserves a round of applause. And I'll finish on this colleagues. Whilst I am still in the process of concluding the mayoral team roles and responsibilities and who's in the team, I can confirm to council that Councillor Gina Reynolds will be rejoining the mayoral team, because I'm quite good at spotting talent and I think Gina is a formidable councillor and I absolutely want her in my team. So thank you very much. Next task over the next four years is getting things done the Salford way. Let's get it done and let's work together in the interests of our people, our communities and our great city. Thank you very much. Before I invite Councillor Robin Greed, I'd just like to say thank you very much to those kind words. I think you're too kind but thank you, thank you. But yeah, I will say more in the leading speech obviously this afternoon, thank you. So can I invite Councillor Robin Greed as Leader of the Conservative Group to respond to the City Mayor's statement? Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, it would be fairly shortly back to congratulate the City Mayor on his success at the election. I do have a first part of his system and sometimes some of us have concerns as to whether that's the best way to carry on. But I would like to say that we should not become complacent. I say that, in fact, for the best of reasons. 84 turn out with 26% for the City Mayor's elections. That's it. 70% of people, you know, not voting for the City Mayor. Only 16% of people voted for the City Mayor. That's hardly a good endorsement of a manifesto. And I hope in fact that as the next four years go by, that the City Mayor does take account of the fact that it's considerably less than a majority of people in the city. It did not vote for him or the Labour Party. And we have to do something about that from our side to make sure that we increase the numbers of people out of votes as well. But I think it's extremely important that we try and encourage people to go out and vote. It's important that people fought for the vote, women fought for the vote, you know. Here we are with, you know, such a small, I've lost my word sometimes, just a small percentage of people that are actually voting. And you know, 16% for the City Mayor, it takes a very fast, very small. Anyway, moving on. There are 600 more council homes and that's a good target to leave. That would be a minor city there in fact. If we were achieving these targets without existing registered providers. In fact, I think that's exceeded in those next figures. And certainly the forecast over the next five years is to actually exceed that 600 figure. So, whilst it's a good target to leave before, and certainly on this side, you know, we want to see more social housing. We have our own ideas as to how that can be provided and we set that out in our manifesto elections. In terms of what land can be made available, in terms of the building behind this centre, you know, being abolished, you know, and the land used for social housing. So, there are plenty of opportunities there from our point of view to actually increase social housing. That's a policy which we certainly agree with. We don't necessarily agree with the way this is being gone about. You mentioned City Mayor, the strategy for the City. Now, my understanding of it was that you actually said you're on the election campaign, that by purchasing your share of the record stadium, you would be increasing sports throughout the city. And I understood that wasn't just rugby, I understood that was all sports throughout the city. Certainly our policy is not just to concentrate on one sport, but to concentrate on a whole range of sports for all our young people throughout the city. And there's so many different aspects of sports, which I'm sure they would like to be involved in. So, from our point of view, that's what we will be addressing for. It may be sound quite old, I'm probably going to get on a bit now, when the City Mayor referred to the creation of the Sulfid Bora. And I was one of the first Councillors to be elected to the new Sulfid Bora in 1975. Councillor Sington was the first, and now he was at the end of his term of office. I'll have to say, I enjoyed those five years, because it was the start of a new era, where we all have great hopes of achieving things. I sat on the committee, housing committee, with Council and Councillors, and I think we had great hopes about solving some of it. Housing problems, and we talked about places like Ladywell and the Barricasites and so on. Some things we've actually achieved in that area, but there's a lot still left to be done. Offstead results, we have to congratulate, and those schools which have got well, in particular references to the Mayor there through Androids, Barroids, and others at schools have started to improve. But the proof of the pie is going to be in the eating. We've got to improve those academic results. We've got to get more youngsters through at the level of grades, A to C. We aren't still quite low down. We have to make sure that our youngsters have the opportunity of achieving the best possible results they can. I certainly don't believe that academic results are everything. I don't believe that we should make sure that we engage in all sorts of activities. It's said on the technical side, certainly in my day I registered in modern school. I may have a very good technical section where the youngsters have got a particular academic. They could actually concentrate on medical work, on woodwork, and the things that were important in everybody's everyday life. I certainly want to support the continuing efforts in those directions, which I know we are already starting to make in salt. Children and young people are our future. We have to support them, and we have to make sure they have the best possible start in life. We have to start at a very young age. I think starting to support children, when they're already going through primary school, I think it's too late. I think we have to start right at the very beginning. We have to start with the parents of those children. When they're born, we need to work with them, and we need to start to improve their outlook as they grow older, so their expectations are better than they are at the moment. I said to support what you say about children and young people. Finally, two things. Most of us, I think in this council, have problems with masks, radio masks being erected behind houses and so on. I'm sorry, in fact, we've not got a petition slot in the agenda today. But I've got a double petition, and most of us have petitions. Another 150 signatures against the 5G mass behind houses in Wynton, right? Just no thought of what people are going to have to present with. So I will hand the petition out with you tonight, rather after the meeting. I do hope that as a council, we continue to scrutinise these computations very carefully, and we're possible to reject them. I know some of them have a statutory right, but not all of them do, and therefore we can actually move ahead on that. Finally, we too were sorry to hear about the trying to enquire. I don't know if we know what the actual cause of it was yet, but I think that there are rumours flying around the source of mind to be. It's a terrible loss to the area, and I do hope, in fact, that we're going to very quickly sit sometime in a lot too distant future. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Robin Gurudow. I've had a couple of members indicating the questions and comments. Councillor MURRAY. Thank you. Thank you very much. And can I just add to what the City Mayor has said about you. I think you've done a tremendous job on the very difficult circumstances. I'm sure there's an opportunity to talk about this later. I can't go further, I think, than quote the remarks of the Council of Bob Clark in Manchester Evening News, which, for once in my entire political career, I actually agree with. Can I just remind us all what he said? He said that this government is stale, and we need a general election now. I can't go further than that to actually say that I fully endorse your remarks, Councillor Clark, and I hope that you've made those remarks clear to the person sitting next to you, Councillor Garrito, and made it quite clear on what you stand. Because I'm telling you now, when I went around the city, and I did have the opportunity to go around the city recovering from the operation I had, I'll tell you now, right, people are in despair that they have a central government that doesn't care about them, that won't deliver any of their priorities, and spend endless hours on infighting and arguing among themselves when this country desperately needs a fresh start in order to actually deliver on the economy and all the rest of it. They tell us that the inflation rate has gone down. Well, the people have thought, and I think don't believe that the inflation rate has gone down. They're still paying high costs for all the services they get. They're still paying for the incompetence of this particular government, and it's time for them to go. And I was very struck, sitting there, in the conversations I've had with you, that you've articulated a different vision, a vision of getting things done, of meeting the actual needs of all of the people, whether it's with decent housing, or decent social care, or decent children services. That's what people want. They don't want to hear editors' discussions with Liz Cross about who was right, and who actually should be in charge at this moment in time. Make a choice. And as for you, Council Saunders, I read your leaflet in cursal with great care and attention. I do note that you didn't mention the Conservative government once. I do note that you didn't mention your candidate for the greater Manchester morality once, and concentrated on the no doubt values that you espout. But the fact remains that I did not see anybody from the Conservative Party in my section of the board. You must have missed me. Yes. Thank you, Councilor Green. I can't think why. But the reality of the situation is, I think in Salford we have a blueprint, and I intend to devote the next 12 months after discussions with the city mayor, on preparing the Labour government that we desperately need in this city to deliver for the ordinary people of this city. Thank you, Councilor Murray. Councilor Cooley. Thank you very much. That's good to be back. I would like to echo the remarks of several of the members who have said today just to thank all the officers, also to thank all the volunteers, as well, for the individual parties on all sides, whether that be either seen or comes in, whatever it may be. I think some time to get a notice that I mentioned, and they do a remarkable job, a lot of other volunteers. I would also like to thank you, Chair, as well, for your last year. I will be here this afternoon, but I don't want to speak for the benefit of everyone. But I'd like to thank you on your work, and it is a tremendous amount, as well, that you have been raised for some very good, very good charities, so thank you very much so many of you. I'd also like to welcome all the new Councillors, particularly my Councillor Clark and Councillor Saunders from the Conservative Group. We're welcome back. Unfortunately, we are one short this year, but I would absolutely like to welcome Councillor Brady to the Chamber. I do hope we can work together on things. I think you might struggle on some of the pages on the green spaces, and you might want to speak to some of the members who have had some repercussions when they've spoken up against that, but hopefully we can work together on a lot of those issues. I'd also like to welcome back Councillor Davis, as well, to the Chamber. We've agreed to keep it 1-1, as a result, but I would like to welcome him back, and I know that the members who he serves with, in little Halton, Councillor Sharpen, Councillor Pepper, will work well with him. Hopefully he'll be a little more popular on the Labor Ventures than his predecessor was, but I'm sure you'll work together well with members of the Council. And also, of course, it's interesting to see the amounts of the new group as well. I'd like to welcome, obviously, Council more to replace, as a new member, and all the other Labor Members who have been elected. I'm a little bit confused as to how a member who is elected as an independent could become a member of a political group. I'm not too sure if I'm against the fact that you can be an independent member of a political group of the UNWIC, which is an interesting choice. It sort of reminds me of a night club in Amsterdam, but we'll go with it, and hopefully, as one, hopefully as an opposition, we can still hold this Council to account. And I'm proud of your city map, because for once, in your many speeches here, you did not mention the word, Oster. Not once, not once. I didn't think so anyway. I'll go back and have a listen, but I'm fairly certain you didn't. But on a more professional note, anyway, I know that the election count, we did have a very brief chat about the Council's work on modern-day slavery, and I'd be interested to see some of the more impact of that. And I know, obviously, it's going to be difficult to get an official number on human trafficking in modern-day slavery in Seoul, and it may be an approximate number, as you spoke about then. But I would like to see some of the work of the Council through on that, perhaps, that we can work together to see. So if you were able to provide statement, or at least we can have a meeting at some point, just to see if the work of the Council through in on that, I think you would benefit the city at all, thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, Councillor CUMMING. Thanks for your kind words as well. Councillor SON, this... Thank you, Chair. Firstly, can I echo my colleagues? Councillor Greedon, Councillor KILLI. Councillor KILLI, first of all, I can offer you some advice on operating in a mixed wall in the sense of wards with various parties. Also, Councillor KILLI mentioned, just at the end, modern slavery. As you know, I am currently, might change, but currently, the LGA spokesman on modern slavery, so if you're going to have any meetings about that, I'm more than happy to be involved. Can I also echo the sentiments to our ceremonial mayor and Chair, Councillor GINA Reynolds. I'm not sure how many times you are in Curzel, in particular, the care homeland, the chaplain of it, you must run into quite a lot. But thanks for being a very popular ceremonial man, indeed, the amount that you got for charity was, particularly, I think, at your last ball a few weeks ago, it was incredible. Can I, having mentioned a couple of my colleagues, Councillor MARY referred to my colleague, Councillor CLARKE. Now, we might be a whipped group, it doesn't mean we can't have differences of opinions, as long as we vote together. I can refer you to tomorrow's edition of the Berry Times, in which I will be featured as an opinion columnist, and I will have a slightly different take to my colleague, Councillor CLARKE. I will be defending the Governor's record, I will be defending the right to carry on, and I refer to Sir Keir Starmer, constantly calling for an early election, like a betting man trying to cash out, sorry, cash out a bet, because he's worried that by the time the game will be over, his lead will have evaporated. I also refer to Manchester United fans knowing all about this feeling. Anyway, please do have a look at the Berry Times tomorrow. On a very serious note, I'd like to pay tribute to the police, counter-terrorist authorities, the CST, for stopping an alleged plot in the last few days, a serious terrorist plot to kill members, presumably either prominent members or indiscriminately, of the sulphur Jewish community, as well as members of the military and those in authority. Hopefully that plot has been foiled. I can't say much more because of course matters are sub-judacy, but I'd like to pay tribute, as I say to the police, the counter-terrorism authorities and the CST, and I'd like to echo the CST's request for the community to keep calm, because, as they used to say, Dad's Army don't panic. I'd also like to thank one of the returning councillors to thank the returning officer and all his team, the police and everyone else, the staff at the stadium for the excellent way in which the election was carried out. Council Walters, as you know, formed a new group or the wet group, and he put out a claim, which I think you referred a bit to today, to labour, disaffective labour members to join his group. He put this out on social media, he said we only need another five to become the official opposition. Can I give a counter-offer? It's a counter-offer to any disaffected labour members. We actually only need 23 of you to take control of the council chamber, and believe me you'll have much more fun than you will with his lot. We even offer you a free annual away date in the Civic Centre Boardroom. And, wait for this. Clearly, Sir Keir Starmer doesn't think you could put a cigarette paper between the right wing of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. So clearly he thinks the Labour Party got much more in connection with the Conservative Party. So anybody is thinking of defecting, pleased effect to us, and not to the unwit group. Finally, I too was upset about to read about the Clarendon leisure centre, I hope it does get rebuilt. On leisure, I'm glad to see that the co-op line is finally up and running. It was very embarrassing what's been happening, of course, as a member of the LGA Safe and Stomper community. What's the song as you've got a minute? Right. Okay. I'm just going to end on this. I just had a thought. The co-op is a bastion and an icon of socialism. Found it here in Greater Manchester. In fact, the co-op sponsors several Labour politicians, even some in this very room. One Earth is the co-op doing, chucking a hundred million pounds of its partner's shareholders' money at a commercial venture run by an American corporation. But then a secure starmer will tell you, and certainly Christian Wakeford and Dan Poulter and Natalie Elfick, including socialists, made what they used to be. Thank you, Councillor. So, I'm just Councillor King. Thank you, ceremonial mayor. Just a couple of brief points for me. I'd like to join the city mayor and congratulating Councillor Turner in reaching the busy heights of parish council, as it drains very well, whatever you call them through. That will keep you busy for the next number of years. I don't often agree with Councillor Grego, but I do agree on the poor turnout. In fact, this is an issue for all local governments right across the UK, regardless of which of the poor countries you look at. The turnouts at local elections in particular are very low, and it's disappointing that our democracy doesn't seem to be working as effectively as it should be. That said, some of the responsibility falls on the shoulders of candidates and councillors and others who stand. And my party did campaign throughout the city in all of the world, and I haven't seen great evidence of some of the others being involved in as many words as we were, for example. And we did campaign very hard, for example, in Worsley and Westford Park, and the result of that is sitting over here, as you can see, so congratulations to James Brady. So it does pay opposition councillors to go out and campaign, you never know what might happen as a result. So that's it. On the quarantine issue, I occasionally swim there, and I really enjoy going there. It's very easy to park, and it's not as crowded as brought and where I live. And I'm very disappointed, and I do hope that it wasn't arson. But the people who are going to be badly disadvantaged are the many school children who go there from the local schools, and it means that they're going to have to try swimming spaces somewhere else in some other of our local schools, and they are already fairly booked down some places, and that I think is very, very disappointing. So with this asking, whoever the corporates are, should be thinking well ashamed of themselves, because the people who are losing out are the poor children from local schools, which isn't the wealthiest part of our city, and that's extremely, extremely disappointing. And finally, I'd like to say, well done to our ceremonial mayor for granting the Mer Seasons Award to a very young lady, an 85 year old, for her many years of service to the WOBS recently, and she's, I believe, I've been told that she's going to continue for many more years to come, and I think that they are the people who should be recognized, who give service out of the kindness of their hearts, who's dozens and dozens and dozens of people, and that it's well done to our ceremonial mayor, who comes to the end of the service, and congratulations on having a wonderful year, and thank you very much indeed. Thank you, Councillor CUNY. Yes, she was an incredible lady. Yes, thank you. Councillor Prady. And words, and I'm sure we're going to work well together, particularly as I think of detecting from Councillor Garedo, that it was advocating of a turn of shorts now, and it marks the words of children and the youth. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Prady. Councillor DAVIS. Sorry, I'm getting used to this now. Hi, colleagues. I'll be brief. Firstly, I just want to thank all our polling staff and everybody involved in the election. I don't think I had an opportunity to function about them. And, you know, I have many colleagues. I think in terms of low turnout, I think there's an issue that we definitely need to work on, but I think that's, I think, low turnout falls on as well as a democracy. I think like many of my colleagues across the region, I was pretty dismayed to find that in my world, there was no sorry leaf that was going around and a load of other colleagues found that as well. I want to congratulate Councillor CUNY. I want to thank Councillor Kiley for his kind words as well earlier. I'd like to congratulate everybody that was returned, you know, whether your colleagues of all parties, groups and now alliances. But in particular, I'd like to say congratulations to our newest colleague, Labor colleague James Prader. We've had now two Labor Councillors on Worsley Green. So I'd also like to throw that back to the Tories as well. And, you know, if anybody wants to jump ship before Worsley becomes a bastion of the Labor Party, you know, please feel free to. Thank you, Councillor Davis. I've got Councillor Gull and then I'm taking Councillor Fletcher's the last one, otherwise we won't get to the end of the agenda. Councillor Gull. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a Claritian resident, I just wanted to thank the fire fighters for the fire that have been Claritian laser center. My staff and at their residence, we were working up on Friday nights. I was working on myself at 3am. I think the fire started before that. We were on the shelf till the shelf to face to witness the valuable assets in the world brought down by fire. So far, we don't know what happened, but it was terrible. It was so threatening to witness this and then, oh my God, what is going on? This is the only asset that we have in this world, and it's not just for the Claritian resident, it's definitely the whole city because I think both bringing children from different schools across the city to learn how to stream. I was so sad on the nights, but as the city mayor said, let's wait for the police investigation. Hopefully, we get answers to this. Being the only asset that saved the city in this area, we are hoping myself and the other is hoping that this can be fixed as much of an agency to give not just our children, but the whole other residents. This heart has been helping for streaming lessons and also the gym. It was so sad to see that this asset was being refurbished recently. During March, people were using different areas. Councillor King said mentioned children were moving a different area for streaming lessons and everything. So that has been said back. That was a little refurbished so that we can again have something that we value in that world. Unfortunately, that is when brought down. We don't know the reason yet, but if it's human manifestations that we very start. Hopefully, that was an incident. Let's wait for the answer. But we hope that this can be put back to the good cause for our children and for our community. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Fletcher. Just a few thank yous. Thank you for the returning officers and the electoral team who did a fantastic job. Welcome to all the new Councillors as you embark on your journey. Thank you, City Mayor, for a very comprehensive report and statement. Thank you, Councillor Saunders, for not putting a leaflet through my door. And the biggest thank you to Councillor Gina Reynolds, ceremonial mayor. You've been an absolute model and I've watched some of the things you've done and hopefully learnt something. And my final point is the year before you, as we know, Anne-Marie Humphries was ceremonial mayor. And then Councillor Reynolds, the next one is Councillor Burch, and then Councillor Heather Fletcher. So, we're all very different people, very different, but what have we got in common? We're all women. I think that must be something of a record for women, ceremonial mayors of this city and something to be very proud of. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Fletcher, and I agree it is great that we've got another woman and we'd be south following the year after some traffic. So, can we now invite the city mayor to respond? Okay, thank you very much. First of all, Councillor Rito, thank you for your congratulations. In terms of first pass the post and your comments on that, you might want to talk to your own government on that, because I think they actually brought the voting system in themselves. So again, it's not a matter for us, but if you've got an issue with it, then by all means, raise it with your government. In terms of the turnout being pathetic, I think Councillor Davis for me nailed it in terms of his comments and his response. To describe something as pathetic and not see yourself as part of the solution, almost as if it's a reflection of me, I think is hugely problematic. I didn't hear anything thinking what you said when you were talking about the low turnout, that spoke to your own personal agency with regards to tackling this issue. Back to what I said at the start, this is about integrity, it's about consistency. It's about us all looking at ourselves and asking ourselves, what role do we play to tackle these issues? And just to reassure you, I don't see the turnout as a positive thing either. I want as many people as possible to be involved in the democracy of this city. And just to reassure you even further, I've already spoken to the Chief Executive because I see it as a collective responsibility to try and tackle the issue you've raised. But when I talk about a collective responsibility, it's also a matter for yourselves and your own group. So I would request that rather than just coming to the Chamber and describing this as pathetic, we all go away and think about how we're going to collectively work together to improve turnout in the city of Sulford. And that includes the City Council and the officers and the work of the elections team. So I'll leave that there, but all too often do I hear comments which talk about the solution as somehow being outside of themselves. Well, let's look at ourselves before we point the finger at others. On Dereve, can I just say, I don't know what planet you're on, but Dereve is literally knocking it out of the park in terms of delivering rents, social rents and local housing allowance rents. And I think when you compare and contrast that with the agenda that's being pursued by housing associations up and down the country, who've embraced this whole notion of cross subsidy whilst at the same time paying their chief executives ridiculous sums of money or compromising the amount of actually truly affordable housing we're delivering, I think you should be absolutely cheerleading Dereve. Dereve is doing a sterling job as a small nation organisation and long may that continue in this great city. You know, we've all got to acknowledge and again take collective responsibility for the failures of privatisation, for the hollowing out of the state, for the rowing back of council housing, for the non-scraping of right to bike. It's why we have a housing and homelessness crisis. The data, the empiricism is there for all to see and anyone who doesn't see that really isn't looking for the truth. In terms of Peel's share, you know, you're right to highlight my emphasis on the rugby strategy, but I will assure you, we are wrong with doing a sports and leisure review for the entirety of the city and council of Bentham currently is leading that world. So we will have a sports and leisure strategy, a rugby strategy, but I'll remind you, on the stadium back in 2009-10, we built the stadium for Salford Reds, the home for Salford Reds, to keep them in Super League and to allow them to generate revenue through the stadium. The stadium was built as a community stadium for Salford Reds. It was built for a rugby team to ensure that they were compliant with the RFL requirements at the time, otherwise they would have been kicked out of Super League. So let's get the facts right, let's deal with the facts, because it's really important, because this is what was communicated to the residents of our city back in 2009-10, when those decision notices were taken. That doesn't mean we don't look at it anew and we think about how do we turn this into a community stadium. Absolutely not, everything is on the table and at the moment, as you know, we're in due diligence to try and encourage Peel to hand over the baton in its entirety to ourselves, so we can get on with the job that we articulated all those years ago back in 2009-10, so I'll leave that there. On a stead and academic attainment, I think you're right to highlight that, but I'll just share one quick anecdote for you, and it's always something that sticks in my own mind. My dad didn't go on to university, he didn't do A-levels, he literally went into an apprenticeship, and off the back of that apprenticeship, he managed to bring up three kids and actually move into home ownership, you know, and that was off one salary. My mum, when we grew up as kids, took a part-time job, but that's what he could do back then. You know, it wasn't all about academic attainment, yeah, you had to do reasonably well at school, probably, but even then, employers would still take you on and develop you within the workplace. We've lost all of that within the United Kingdom, and almost, you know, education has become almost a barrier to being able to progress within the labour market, and employers have moved a million miles away from being the people who ultimately sold that. We need much better alignment with our economies of the future and our economies of today and our industries. So for me, the future isn't just about academic attainment, it's about vocation, it's about apprenticeship, it's about part-time study as well as working, that's where we need to be spending more of our time. So it breaks my heart when I see students going through university, coming out with huge amounts of debt and never paying it back, because they never move into those higher-paid, higher-skilled jobs. And you know yourself that your own government and your treasury has recently brought about some reforms, and the driver for it was because the treasury was writing off significant sums of money, and it was getting concerned. So what did it do? It lowered the financial threshold and increased the payback time. So let's look at this in the round. Thanks for your comments on Karen and Fire. Councillor Mary, you're right to absolutely highlight Councillor Bob Clark's comments. The elections were a disaster. He called for a general election, we've been calling for that for months by the way colleagues, and also he said that his own government is stale. I'm impressed that you've still got your membership, if I'm honest with you. But nevertheless, well done, you've said it how it is, and all credit to you, because we should do that. If we genuinely feel moved to the point of feeling that, then we should be able to say it, because I think this is about morality, ethics, and integrity at the end of the day. In terms of the government needing to go, John, you're absolutely right, it absolutely does. And we will continue to do what we've always done, which is speak to the issues that matter to the people of salt. But Keeley, thanks for your comments. You're a very congratulatory. I mean, it was amazing. You didn't actually have too much of a pop of me this time, so quite impressed, I have to say. Although, I was quite surprised with your comments around hanging out in nightclubs in Amsterdam, but nevertheless, you might have to tell me about that another time. On modern day slavery, though, seriously, I have already raised it with our Director of Adult Social Services. We've been doing a lot of work on this at the moment, but just to assure you, it's not just a council matter to that. It's about other organisations. You're just doing some great work. The RCN have been in contact with us as a great Manchester combined authority, GMP. Everyone in the mix is looking at that. We are specifically at the moment looking at social care, just to let you know. There's a real concern in that area, which is why I referred it to the dance and watch this space, so let's collaborate on that. Council Saunders, again, modern day slavery reference, happy to collaborate. On all of that, you're absolutely right on Council Gina Reynolds, and sorry, I'm only on there. She is incredible. Hence why she's coming back into my team, because she's just amazing. On being whipped, though, there was some interesting comment on this. Obviously, being whipped has been portrayed as somehow not being able to be yourself and not being able to speak truth to power. Well, I'm sorry, that doesn't happen in the Labour group. I can assure you, people speak freely. They tell me what they think, even if they don't agree with me. And I welcome that, and we should all welcome that, because the minute we don't have the liberation discussion and debate, and the minute that people can't speak freely is the minute we go down a very slippery slope towards dictatorship. And that is a real concern. So welcoming dissent and, obviously, dealing with it in a structured way is something we should absolutely all do. And it's how we build Team Salhood. It's how we get things done, because we don't get things done on our own, believe it or not. We get things done collectively, but also compromise, consensus, and pragmatism is actually how you get things done. And that's how we'll be delivering the manifesto. Obviously, we have our ideology. Obviously, we don't always want to compromise, but we compromise in the interests of the people we seek to serve and represent. Thanks, also, Councillors, for your comments with regards to GMP. It was Operation Wildflower you were referring to. I just wanted to pay credit to the work they've done around the terrorist plot that you highlighted. I know it has very specific implications for the Jewish community within the city of Salhood. On the court live, I can't really comment on that. I know that you think I'm responsible for everything. But unfortunately, the court live does not sit within the curtain edge of the great city of Salhood. It sits within our neighbouring city, who's joined by the river, and that is the city of Manchester. So please do go and have a chat with them about that. As Councillor King on parish councils, I echo, obviously, all of your comments. Like I said earlier, it's interesting. You know, Councillor Turner has now been duly elected, and he's putting an additional precept onto the council tax bills of the good people of culture in Glaisebury to furnish you with your public office in that beloved parish council. But my advice for the future is, if you do issue any more literature, do let them know you're also serving on Salhood City Council. You know, it wouldn't be remiss of you to do that, because the experiences you've obviously garnered here I think will stand you in good stead to issue directions and participate over that side of the water, the fence, whatever we want to say. Councillor Prady, thank you very much. You're absolutely right. To spot Councillor Greedo's comments, I think he is talking about returning to Shawport. You're absolutely spot on. We might have a different language, of course, because they like language games. They love language games, actually. But at the moment, on a serious issue, school attendance and family hubs in Salhood, we are receiving money from government, which will run out. When that money runs out, I am concerned, because these are having huge impact, positive impact on children and young people in our city. So whether we call it Shawport, family hubs, money to support our schools after, you know, 14 years of cuts, $245 million, by the way, taken out of our budget, I use the word cuts, not austerity comes to the feeling. Yeah, I need to wind up. I know. Yes, let's work on that, because I am concerned if your government pulls a plug or a future government. So, Councillor Davis, you're right to highlight turnout, and yes, let's absolutely work on turning words to the red, and red, or ever, in perpetuity. Councillor Goula, I do need to just quickly say, I'm really sorry about the impact of the fight, because I know you live very close. Thank you for your kind words on the Fire and Rescue service. They're really appreciated. I'm glad you're being supported. I know it was a frightening situation for many of the residents. It was being refurbished, but I've already had Rebecca Longbailey, the MP, and Mayor Byrne and reach out to me to say, can they do anything to help with regards to how we move things forward. So, Sports England is in my sight. DCMS is in my sight, because we will need capital, and if you remember, the issue previously was inflation going through the roof. Stymie does being able to progress a new leisure facility for that part of the city, so watch the space. And then finally, Councillor Fletcher, thank you for your thank yous, and thank you to all the women in this council, Chamber, who served this city so well, day in and day out, as well as the men. Thank you. Thank you, City Mayor. So, this now concludes the business, but I'd just like to, before I finish, thank everyone for their lovely comments. I'll be saying more later, have had an incredible and memorable year. I'm delighted on the morning that's been raised, but I'll say more this afternoon. I want to thank all the officers here for their great support and assistance over the last 12 months during the term of office, and for all the elected members as well for your support, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Lunch will be served downstairs in the Salford suite for those having lunch, and you need to be back here if you've been, if you're coming to Mayor, making for 1.55. Thank you. [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO]

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