Transcript

Transcript

I would like to introduce my Minister, Reverend Anita Mckenzie, to say some prayers to start the meeting. Thank you. Good evening, Councillors, officers and guests. On this important evening, we share saying a farewell to the outgoing Chair of Fexton District Council, Councillor Abner Akufakelli, and to the welcoming a new Chair. So thinking about endings and new beginnings, I want to share an interfaith implication with you. God within us, or to the Supreme Being of our understanding, by your example, you have created within us a great capacity for compassion and love. Through the example of your dignity, your teachings show us how wondrously connected we all are as human beings. You have created a new beginning in leadership for this District Council, which starts with an ending. We are thankful for the doors you open to guide our leaders to new opportunities to serve the community. Help us all to always work to honour and protect that dignity. Help us all to be mindful of those that need our protection and support. Help us all to advance healing as societal divides that may bring sorrow to our town. Help us all to be builders of both prosperity and peace. Help us all to reflect your light in the world by our actions guided by truth, integrity and service. Make us all stewards of time, finances and equality and all the other blessings we have received. And on this day, when the presiding Chair departs from office and a new Chair takes on the Office of Responsibility, let this day be one of new opportunity. Bless the new Chair and their family as they begin their new Office of Service. Bless the members of this District Council, their families and all the people who serve the District along with them. We ask that you pour down your blessings upon all fixed and citizens so that they may flourish peacefully in prosperity, good health and safety. We ask in reverence confident of all teachings of love and mercy. Help us to be more like you and to hear your message when you are speaking to our hearts. Let it be so. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the Annual Council Meeting. This meeting will be webcast live to the internet. For those who do not wish to be recorded or filmed, you will need to leave the chamber. For members and officers speaking at the meeting, it is important that microphones are used so viewers on the webcast and others in the room may hear you. Would anyone with a mobile phone please switch to silent mode as they can be distracting? Thank you. So we will start the meeting with apologies for absent Chief Executive. Are there any apologies? Evening Chair, yes there are this evening. Evening Councillors, public and colleagues. We have apologies this evening from Councillor Goddard and Councillor Walker has indicated that she will be late arriving so she's given apologies for lateness. Okay, thank you. So we move on to the most important or very important item which is the election of Chair of the Council. We will start with a very short speech from me because I know it's such a beautiful day. I'm sure most of you want to and be able to enjoy it. So the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3 that to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. There is a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away. Today I cast away my chains of office, my title and my extremely comfortable chair and pass all of them on to my vice chair and soon to be chair. I look but we don't know. In life nothing is permanent and only transient. The beauty of life is embracing the permanence of impermanence and delighting in change because whether you want it or not change will always happen. I've enjoyed every single day, hour, minute and second of being in this role. I know that the new chair, whoever they may be will do an absolutely sterling job. Now for my list of thanks. I thank the magical triad of Susan Amandie and Gemma who guided me through the brave new world of district council protocol. Who knew that there are so many rules and regulations that you need to follow to disagree with other people. I thank my fellow councillors from all party colours for showing me grace, respect and following my lead. Although to be fair you mostly didn't really have a choice but I thank you anyway. I know that some will be breathing a sigh of relief to not have to be in the firing line on my very special pointed and extremely sharp looks. I thank the officers for being patient with many of us. I've relearned the ropes and always doing such an amazing job. I thank Sue, my wonderful PA who fortunately for her is now probably on the beach somewhere sunning herself and enjoying her retirement rather than being in this meeting. Sue, I salute you. You have been an awesome help. I thank Dave, my driver, chain bearer, bodyguard although to be honest he was guarding those chains rather than me. As a confidant I recall about all things to do with being chair, my right hand man and my friend. I've already been given him a card and a present and today I give him my undying thanks for looking after me so well. I thank Anita, my friend, minister, photographer and cheerleader. Words are an insufficient vehicle to really convey how I feel. I will give you a big hug later instead. Lastly, but anyone who knows me by all means not least I thank my daughter for just existing and being the true sunshine of my life although nowadays there are sporadic intervals of princess of darkness. You will always be my greatest honor and pride. Thank you one and all. Short and sweet like I said. Thank you. Okay, so it's now time to call for nominations for the chair for the next municipal year. Do we have a proposal? I'm happy to propose Councillor Anita Jones. Thank you. Do we have a seconder? Happy the second. Thank you very much. I invite the proposals and the seconders for any speeches if they have them prepared. Chair, if I could, I would just like to say that I've known Councillor Jones for many years and in a small way I am responsible for dragging her into this chamber. But she has been an excellent high-attend Councillor. She has been a beyond excellent mayor of Hyde and I am sure that she will follow your example and be an excellent chair for this Council. So I am very, very happy to second Councillor Jones. Okay, thank you very much and we now go for the vote. So we'll vote by show of hands, all in favour of Councillor Jones. It's carried. Thank you, Councillor Jones. Finally, I can say it. Congratulations and I know you'll do a sterling job and I can say now Anita will do a sterling job. We still need to do that. Okay, then. Okay, we will do that. Okay, all those against. Any abstentions? Thank you very much. The vote is carried. Congratulations. Okay, so Councillor Jones, could you go and sign? I, Councillor and you to Jones, having been elected to the Office of Chair of Folkston Hyde District Council, declare that I take the office upon myself and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it according to the best of my judgment and ability. Thank you very much. We shall now retire to the Chamber to do a quick change over. Thank you. [No audio] [No audio] Thank you. Shall we all sit down? Thank you to all the Councillors for electing me to be Chairperson this year. I'm humbled to have the opportunity to represent the whole district. I understand that we're in our 50th year and as a district council and I'm grateful to all the Councillors and officers who have got us this far. We can look forward to the next 50 years. I'm proud to have lived in folks in Hyde for most of my life. Our district has such an amazing variety of landscapes, cultures and people and I've been fortunate to live and work in different areas of the district throughout my life. I first moved to folks when I was two and I lived in what became Broad Mead Village. I attended both primary and secondary school in Folkston and moved to Hyde when I was 10. After several years away following my studies at university and early teaching career, I moved back to Hyde in my mid 20s and worked at a number of schools across the district in Folkston, Hyde and on the Marsh and I have also worked in the Eland Valley as an organist for 15 years and have a business on the High Street and Hyde. I have learned a lot about the people and places in the district through this work and I hope that this role will teach me more about our district and how we can continue to improve the lives of those who live here. I promise to promote all parts of our beautiful district in my role as chair. From the white cliffs overlooking the Folkston Warren, to the glorious north downs, the beautiful Eland Valley, through our coastal park, along our varied coastline of Shingle and Sand, down our Royal Military Canal, across the Romany Marsh to the desert in Dungeness. As part of this, I would like to take our council on tour throughout the year so that our full council meetings are held in different parts of the district. I understand that Councilor Jim Martin has already been looking into this and I am keen to make this happen so that our meetings are more accessible to everybody in the district. I'm looking forward also to supporting local schools, charities and volunteer groups in their work. As a keen volunteer myself in scouting, I know how important these groups are to the fabric of our district community. I would like to fundraise throughout the year for the Folkston Rainbow Centre, which supports the whole district through the Shepway Food Bank, Hyde Pantry, Mobile Food Bank and the Winter Shelter. They perform such a vital role for this district that they deserve all the support we can give them. I would like to ask members if they would be happy to bring a tin of food to donate to each full council meeting as a gesture of goodwill and I will ask for a donation box to be placed in the members area. I'm particularly keen to engage more with the youth of our district as they are the future. We have discussed starting a youth council and I'd like to make it happen this year. This may take the form of a forum while we work out an election process but it is really important that we start somewhere. I started a youth forum in Hyde this year while I was mayor and found it a very positive experience and useful for improving the direction of our town council plans and initiatives. I'd also like to plan a number of green initiatives while I'm chair. I have started by ordering 423 whips from the Woodlands Trust to plant in the autumn with the young people of the district and I will keep you notified of any other plans as they emerge. Thank you. So I would like to firstly award the chairs, the past chair, her past chair fad. So Avina, would you like to come forward? And my chaplain for the year will be the Reverend Michael Dawkins from St Leonard's in Hyde. He's not able to be with us tonight as his wife has just had a baby. So wish him well for that and we'll look forward to seeing him at our next meeting. Okay, we'll move on to item three. We'll have the election of the vice chair of the council and I'd like to invite nominations for the vice chair please. I'm happy to nominate Councillor Tony Cooper. And do we have a seconder? I'm very happy to second Councillor Tony Cooper for vice chair. Wonderful and is there anything you would like to say in your proposal? Thank you chair. Just to say very briefly that Tony will work his socks off in this role and he will be a strong voice for people with mobility issues and people living on the marsh. I'm very happy to propose it. Thank you. So Tony, if you would like to, oh sorry we need to vote don't we? I'll get better at this I promise. So could we have a show of hands who would like to vote for Tony to be vice chair? And do we have anybody who's against and anybody who's abstaining? Thank you. So that's carried. Should we give Tony a round of applause? [No audio] Hi, Councillor Tony Cooper. I've been elected to the office of vice chair. I've felt that I had district council declare that I shall take office upon myself. I will join you in favor of the duties of the scholars in my best judgment in the bill fee. Thank you. [No audio] [No audio] Thank you Tony and would you like to give us any thoughts? First of all can I thank my proposal and seconder and also like to thank you for the members for having the confidence to vote me into this particular office. But I also say that although I'm the most physically disabled person in the room can I just say that this council, but I luckily mean to this office, is basically representative of the community. Disabled people in this district have not been a voice and also may I also say people are normally master both of our voice as well. But I anticipate I'm going to have a loss of fun and joy and laughter support in the chair and you know where I am if you need me [No audio] Thank you that's very exciting so I'm really delighted with our new vice chair. So we'll move on to item four, declarations of interest. Has anybody got any declarations of interest? Nope okay. And moving on to item five, so this is the minutes of, let me just find the right page, to receive the minutes of the meeting from 24th of May 2023 and to authorise the chair of the council to sign them as a correct record. Are we all agreed? Agreed. Okay. Do I need to sign them? [No audio] [No audio] Okay so moving on to item six, we have the proposed changes to planning and licensing committee. We will need somebody to propose the report and second it and then we can move into debate if we need to. Councillor Lockwood. Happy to propose that. Thank you and do we have a seconder? Very happy to second. Thank you and would you like to say anything about the proposal and are there any comments from any Councillors that you'd like to raise? Councillor Mead. Thank you Chair and congratulations. I just want to say that the few changes that are going on on the planning committee are helping us work towards the fuller committee systems we go through and one of the really good changes to the committee and I think it would be very helpful to us is we're going to have a legal representative coming in because sometimes we do trip over knowing whether something that we want to agree or disagree with is actually going to break a certain planning law not just a policy but a law so I would recommend wholeheartedly that we accept these. Thank you. Thank you. So do we need a vote? Yes. So who's in favour? I think that's unanimous. Okay, so we'll move on to item seven. We have the appointments to committees and subcommittees. So you should have the for you. So the current chairs and current vice chairs and I'd like to see whether we have a proposal for this. Happy to propose all of the chairs and vice chairs in one go if everyone's happy to do that and point of order that a couple of chairmen snuck into the paperwork somewhere just to know. Okay. Thank you for pointing that out and do we have a second to Councillor Martin? Very happy to second and I think doing it on block because Councillor Lockwood is suggested is a very good suggestion. Thank you very happy with that but has anybody else got anything they'd like to add to that? Councillor Pater. Yeah, that's just to clarify having spoken to the proposal and seconder that what is being proposed is that the chairs from last year are the chairs from this year. So just for the minutes for the tape it's that all the chairs would remain the same from last year to this year. Should we read those out? So the chairs for this year, is that okay? Yeah. The chair of the order in governance, Councillor McShane, the vice chair, order of governance is Councillor Butcher, the chair of the Planning and Licensing Committee, Councillor Mead and the vice chair of Planning and Licensing Committee, Councillor Keene, the chair of the Personnel Committee, Councillor McConville and the chair of the Personnel Committee, Councillor Holgate. Am I missing now? Yes, I'll be unscrewing me. No, that's fine, I don't see. Should we have a vote? Can we see all in favour, please? That's unanimous, so that's carried. Thank you. So moving on to item eight, we have the delegation of non-executive functions. So again, do we have somebody who would like to propose this? Happy to propose that. Thank you. And a seconder, Councillor Martin. Happy to second. And would you like to speak on this? Would anybody else like to speak on this? Or should we move to a vote? So can we see who's in favour of this? It's unanimous, thank you. And moving on to item nine, we have the schedule of meetings for 24/25. Would somebody like to propose those meetings? Councillor Lockwood. Happy to propose. Thank you, and Councillor Martin. A very happy to propose, Chair. Second. Sorry, very happy to second, Chair. And does anybody have anything they'd like to add? Councillor, Mrs Jenny Hollingsby. Thank you, Chair. I just wondered why the planning had changed to 7.15 start. I'll be interested in that because, you know, planning is a meeting that can go on quite late anyway, and I just wondered why it had been changed to 7.15. Thank you for highlighting that. It's an error. Apparently, it's an error. I just spotted myself and I wondered whether they just wanted to start later, but that's fine, so it will be at seven o'clock. Chair, as we read it. [LAUGHTER] So, should we move to a vote, assuming that that will be corrected to 7 o'clock? So, all in favour? Thank you, and that's unanimous. So, moving on to item 10, the annual report on policies and strategies adopted by the Cabinet. Again, can I have somebody to propose this? Councillor Jim Martin. Very happy to propose, Chair. Thank you, and somebody to second. Happy to second. Councillor Pater, thank you. And is there anything you'd like to add about this report? Any other comments from any Councillors? Should we move to a vote? So, all in favour? That's unanimous. And we'll move to item 11, the Annual Order and Governance Report. Do we have a proposal? Perhaps we'll close that. Thank you. And a seconder? Councillor— Or you have the second, Chair. Thank you. And is there anybody who'd like to tell us anything about this, or we can move to the vote? So, move to a vote. All in favour? Excellent. That's unanimous. And we'll move to item 12, the Annual Report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Again, can we have a proposal? Councillor Laura Davison. And a seconder? Very happy to second, Chair. Councillor Jim Martin, and would anybody like to say anything? Thank you. Not not to prolong the meeting, but just wanted to thank publicly guests who come to the committee during the course of the year and officers for their work and members of the committee for all of their work during the course of the year. Thank you. And if we move to the vote, all in favour? That's unanimous. And moving on to item 13, the Annual Scrutiny Program. So, I hope people had a look at this. Do we have a proposal for this? So, Councillor Laura Davison to propose, and Councillor Jim Martin. Very happy to second. To second. And would anybody like to say anything about this? We'll move to the vote. All in favour? Councillors interjecting. That's unanimous. Thank you. And I think that's the end of the meeting. So, thank you, everybody. And I hope you have a lovely evening. Go and enjoy the sunshine.