Agenda item - Mayor's Communications.

44.1         The Mayor informed the Council of the recent death of former Councillor Smart and before holding a minute’s silence in recognition of his service to the council, called on the Leaders of each Group to pay their respects.

44.2         Councillors Mears, Mitchell, Elgood and Randall each expressed their sadness at the loss of Councillor Smart and asked that theirs and their Groups’ sympathy be passed onto his family.

44.3         The Mayor then held a minute’s silence in memory of Councillor Smart.

44.4         The Mayor then reminded Members of the need to respect the rulings and directions of the Mayor and the consequences should any Member persist in not taking these on board.

44.5          The Mayor then stated that in view of the high level of interest in regard to the Bright Start Nursery, as demonstrated by the number of public questions, Member questions, the petition and the Notice of Motion on the agenda; he intended to change the order of the agenda so that Item 49(a) was taken together with Item 57(c) in one debate.   He would then revert back to the order of items as listed on the agenda.

44.6         The Mayor then offered the Council’s congratulations to the staff from Wetton Cleaning Services who had enabled the Council to come top of the table in the UK Premier League of Local Authority toilets.  The Loo of the Year Awards were run independently by the British Toilet Association and the toilets at the Lawn Memorial Cemetery had been awarded Cemeteries and Crematoria national Category Award winner for England.

44.7         The Mayor then stated that he was very pleased to inform Members that the Council’s Adult Home Care Team had won two awards at the South East Care Awards.  The Home Care Team won the Care Team award, and Personal Admin Assistant, Stephanie Anderson won the Ancillary Worker award.  The awards were recognition of the dedication the whole team continued to show to the people who used the council’s services.

44.8         Finally, the Mayor reported that Councillor Ayas Fallon-Khan was one of only a handful of politicians in the UK who had completed the Institute of Customer Service Award for Communication (ICS).  It was an evidence-based set of competencies, assessed over several months, and the findings praised him for his direct contact and customer service to the residents of his ward, covering over 144 case studies, and also as a strategic lead as a Cabinet Member for the city.  The Mayor also noted that this news followed on from the last council meeting where he was able to inform council of a number of officers who had also been ICS accredited.