Transcript

Good evening, everybody. It's now six o'clock, so we'd like to start the meeting on time. That's my last one. So, here we go. Good evening and welcome everyone to the Lewis District Council Annual Council Meeting. I'm Ian Alexander, Chair of the Council. All Councillors have been sent the agenda papers for this meeting and an agenda supplement. This meeting is being webcast. Please make sure that your mobile phones will turned off, so as to avoid interference with the microphones. If you wish to speak, please raise a hand and I will invite you to speak. Please remain seated at all times so that you can be picked up by both the microphone and the camera. No speech by a member of the Council shall exceed five minutes. There's a traffic light system in front of me who will show amber when you have one minute, remaining and red when you are out of time and must finish. Please make sure your microphone is off after you have finished speaking, as a limited number of microphones can be on at one time. Before we start the business of the meeting, please can we have a period of silence to enable us to focus our thoughts on the meeting or to pray silently. Thank you. Moving to Item 1. Election of the Chair of the Council. Thank you. Moving to Item 1. Election of the Chair of the Council. One nomination has been received for Chair of the Council for Councillor LESNIE Boniface. I invite Councillor Christine Brett to propose the election of Councillor Boniface as Chair and speak to your nomination if you wish to. Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much for your service this year. I'm delighted to nominate Councillor LESNIE Boniface to be the next Chair of District Council. I first met Leslie during my own Chair year when she was Mayor of New Haven. We attended a lot of events together and I found her to be extremely professional and welcoming to everyone she met. Leslie is someone who has given hours of her time volunteering in the community over a number of years, so she recognises how important its element is to our daily lives and the well-being of everyone. She is really passionate about engaging others to work together to improve our environment. Her experience of managing meetings stands in good stead to Chair of our Council effectively, so I ask you to vote for her to be our next first citizen. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a seconder? I have Councillor DAVIS. Do you wish to speak to your seconding? Does anyone else want to speak? The election of the Chair of the Council will now be put to the vote. All those in favour of Councillor DAVIS please indicate by a show of hands. Please interject clearly. I'm thinking that's unanimous. So nobody against no abstentions. Councillor DAVIS is accordingly elected Chair of the Council and I now invite her to sign her Declaration of Acceptance of Office and move to the hot seat, sorry central seat. [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Do you wish to make any further comments? [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Thank you for a point of me to be chair for the year. I'm looking forward to being in this role. I will let you know very soon what my theme will be for the year. Item two, appointment of the Vice Chair of the Council. One nomination had been received for Vice Chair of the Council for Councillor Paul Keene. However, following publication of the agenda, I understand that he has withdrawn himself from consideration. Can I ask for another nomination? Councillor Nicholson. I nominate Ian Alexander. Do you want to speak to your nomination? Yes, please. Thank you very much. So, it's a bit like revolving chairs, isn't it? This is a bit of an unusual thing to do, but I've really enjoyed, as I know you all have, Ian being in the chair position for the last year. And I've been at a few events with him and his wife, and watched the way in which they both held themselves with dignity and grace, particularly last week when Queen came to visit at Charleston, where I know that Ian and Julie were in the receiving line. So, I would like to propose that we put forward in as Vice Chair to Leslie, who I'm sure will make a great support to you, not only in being able to cover things that you can't do, but also in being able to support you in doing an excellent job of chairing the meetings themselves. Thank you. Please, can I have a seconder? Councillor SRI. Yes, our second, Councillor Alexander. Do you want to speak to your seconder? Thank you. Does anybody else wish to speak? The appointment of the Vice Chair of the Council will now be put to the right. All those in favour of Councillor Alexander, please indicate by a show of hands. Any against any abstentions? No, good. That's unanimous. Councillor Alexander is accordingly appointed Vice Chair of the Council and are now in. Invite him to sign his declaration of office and move forward. [Applause] [Applause] Right, item three apologies for absence. Would the committee team manager please report the names of those Councillors who have given their apologies as they are unable to attend this meeting? Yes, thank you, Chair. I've had apologies from Councillor Koopland, Councillor Deney, Councillor Fabry and Councillor Keene. I think I'll give her apologies if she is unable to attend. She may be late. Thank you. Thank you. Item four, declarations of interest. Are there any Councillors who wish to declare any interest in any of the items on the agenda? Item five, minutes. The minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 19 February 2024 have been included as part of your agenda pack. Is it your wish that the minutes be signed as a correct record? Is that agreed? Item six, urgent items. There are no urgent matters. Item seven, announcements. A list of the engagements carried out by Ian Alexander as Chair of the Council over the last year is tabled for information. Can I invite Councillor Alexander to comment if he wishes to do so? Thank you, Chair. I've had a very busy year. I've had just over 40 events all around the district meeting royalty twice. She only spoke to me the second time, not the first, but there were 80,000 other people there. So that was the first time. I've learned a great deal and I've met a lot of lovely people and it's good to see how many people we've got out there helping everybody else in terms of charities and organisations. And they are all starting to link together so there's no overlap, which is a far better way of running it. But yeah, fantastic year. Thank you very much for the post. Thank you, Councillor Alexander. I'm not aware of any other announcements for this meeting from the Chief Executive or Cabinet Members. Item eight, appointments report. There is a report on the main agenda and an agenda supplement for this item. First, can I invite the Leader of the Council to advise on their appointments to Cabinet and the allocation of those areas of responsibility to members of the Cabinet for information? There are no changes to our existing Cabinet, Chair. Thank you, Councillor Nicholson. Secondly, I wish to draw Councillors attention to the report and the recommendation of the Head of Democratic Services and the list of nominations at Appendix 1. Councillor Linnikerson, do you wish to move the recommendations in the report and speak to the recommendations? I'm happy to move the report. No need to speak to it. Thank you. Is there a seconder? Councillor MACKLES. There are no contested nominations, but where there are bodies where no nominations have been received, these will be dealt with by the Head of Democratic Services under Delegated Authority, or voted on at the first meeting of the relevant Committee. Before we go to a vote on the main recommendation, does anyone else wish to speak? I will now put to a vote the report recommendations. All those in favour show unanimous. Thank you. We will move to the next item. Item 9, Annual Pay Policy Statement 2024-2025. I invite the Council to consider the report of the Director of Tourism, Culture and Organization Development and Approval of the Annual Pay Policy Statement. Is there a proposal for the recommendations? Thank you, Councillor COLLEAR. Can I have a seconder please? Does anyone wish to speak on this item? We will now put this to the vote. All those in favour, please show unanimous. Item 10, Calendar of Meetings 2024-2025. I wish to draw Councillors' attention to the calendar of meetings on the agenda for ratification. A couple of minor changes made since the last meetings are set out on the agenda. Can I have a proposal to accept the calendar of meetings? Is there a seconder? I will put this to a vote. All those in favour, please show unanimous. Thank you. Item 11, Urgent Decisions by Cabinet or Cabinet Members. There are no urgent decisions to report. Item 12, Date of Next Meeting. The next meeting is scheduled to take place at 6pm on Monday 22nd of July 2024. The formal business of the Annual Council is now concluded at 6.15pm. Thank you for all attending. [BLANK_AUDIO]