Agenda item - Mayor's Communications.

20.1    The Mayor gave the following communications:

“Firstly, I would like to welcome Jess Gibbons, our new Chief Executive, to her first full Council meeting. As many will know, Jess started with us last week and I am sure you will all wish to join me in warmly welcoming Jess to the Council.

As Mayor of Brighton and Hove I have had a busy couple of months, and I wanted to share some of the themes and highlights with you today.  As you all know I have a particular interest in young people as I was a teacher for many years and know how important it is for young people to receive not only an excellent education but also to be involved in groups and activities that develop their sense of community and encourage greater confidence and leadership skills.  Thus, it was a great pleasure to welcome a number of Scouts to Brighton Town Hall Council Chamber to receive their Silver Awards. Such a lot of smiling faces and young people who obviously very much enjoyed the challenges they had to deal with in order to receive their award.  Lots of very proud parents there too and many photographs were taken.  The same can be said of the RAF cadets award night, held at BHASVIC, where awards were given out for a variety of reasons such as Cadet of the year, most promising cadets and those who had completed certain phases of their training.  Once again there were many proud parents and family members attending and also the many volunteers who help to train these young people and heartfelt thanks were given to them for their dedication and service.  

Visiting the cadets of No 1 Brighton Cadet attachment at the Quebec Army Reserve Centre, Dyke Road, with Cllr Amanda Grimshaw was another inspiring event as we were able to talk with a number of the young cadets, their experiences and their future plans. Such enthusiasm and appreciation of the different activities that they were able to take part in on a regular basis. Parents and potential cadets attended part of the evening and you could see how impressed they were with what was being offered. 

A somewhat different event with primary school children from several schools attending a Poetry Festival at Brackenbury Primary School was great fun and engendered a strong sense of community amongst schools. I was there as one of the three judges of a poetry reading competition and there were a number of tongue-twister poems that were quite challenging for the pupils to read aloud but they were magnificent, and it was hard to choose an overall winner, but we did – a young boy called Ed won with his rendition of ‘Time to breathe’. We decided he had a promising career as a Yoga teacher in the future. Again, a big thank you to the teachers who put so much work into this new venture.

This Monday we held a reception for the girls who have campaigned for a statue for Mary Clarke. Not only had they campaigned but they had also donated pocket money, birthday money and baked cakes to raise money. Seriously impressive commitment to a cause they so obviously believe strongly in – commemorating women who fought so hard for the vote for women in the UK.  Such support for women not only in the UK but globally was reflected on International Women’s Day 8th March which was celebrated at an event at the Double Tree, Hilton and also at the first showing of ‘Vindication Swim’ at the Duke of York cinema in the evening. A fabulous film about Mercedes Gleitze, the first British woman to swim the channel. I recommend it the film to all of you.  

So, let us celebrate the young people in this city who show their willingness to take on challenges, develop teamwork and a sense of civic responsibility.  They come from all backgrounds and capabilities but show how amazing they are when decide to take up a challenge.

Finally, I’m aware that the breaking of the fast for Ramadan is at 6.28pm this evening. Therefore, we will hold a break of 40 minutes beginning at 6.20pm.”