Agenda item - Mayor's Communications.

16.1    The Mayor asked the Council to stand and hold a minute’s silence as a mark of respect for the death of ex?Councillor Ted Furey, which was reported at the Annual Meeting, who served with much distinction as a Labour Councillor for East Sussex County Council during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

16.2    The Mayor also asked that Council stand as a mark of respect for Ian Long who had retired from the council in 2007 as the Director of Housing & City Support, a post he had held since 2003. He had been with Brighton & Hove City Council since its creation in 1997 and passed away on the 26th September.”

16.3    Following the minute’s silence the Mayor then announced that was pleased to present these three prestigious national awards to council given by the Institution of Highways and Transportation in June.  The awards had been won against strong competition from other worthy schemes across the country and were a testament to the council’s commitment to the environment and are tribute to groundbreaking, innovative ideas that made a real practical difference to people’s lives.

16.4    The first two were for New Road which had won the National Transport Awards 2008 for ‘Walking and the Public Realm’ Category, and the Transport Management Practitioners 2008 Urban Design Category.   Since its reopening in June last year New Road had been transformed from a street busy with traffic into a popular ‘shared space’ pedestrian area which had received praise from residents, businesses and visitors.  The scheme was now recognised as a world class example of a shared space scheme and had been visited by groups as far apart as Vancouver and Plymouth.

16.5    The Mayor invited Councillor Geoffrey Theobald to come forward and receive the awards.

16.6    The third award was the Good Communications Awards 2008, Telecoms Innovation and was for the Talking Bus Stops.  Brighton & Hove was the first area in the country to introduce talking bus stops, where blind and partially sighted people received spoken information about bus services.  A small key fob activated the Talking Bus Stop as it was passed and a voice informed the person which bus stop they were at. By pressing a button on the key fob a further message was heard giving details of which buses were coming and when. The system had already revolutionised people’s lives and one user had said that his Talking Bus Stop key fob was as important to him as his mobile phone.

16.7    The Mayor then invited Councillor Brian Pidgeon to come forward to receive the award.

16.8    The Mayor then stated that he was delighted to announce that the Finance & Resources department of the council had received the prestigious Investors in People Award.  He noted that Catherine Vaughan, the Director had made this her top priority for her new department and it was successfully delivered in the planned timescale.  He stated that the Director was particularly proud of the award as it gave recognition for organisations that develop their staff to deliver service and business improvement.

16.9    The Mayor noted that Councillor Jan Young, who was the Cabinet Member for Finance had requested that Councillor Ann Norman, who was the previous lead member for Finance & Resources should come forward to collect the award on behalf of the Directorate. This was in recognition of the support that she had given to the directorate as Lead Councillor and the fact that the award recognised the achievement that came under her leadership.”

16.10  The Mayor then invited Councillor Ann Norman to come forward to receive the award.

16.11    The mayor stated that he was very pleased to inform Council that it had been awarded the South East Employer’s Charter for Member Development, making the council only the 9th authority in the South-East to achieve Charter Status.  The achievement had been the result of excellent work co-ordinated by the Member Development Working Group and staff within Democratic Services and he hoped to be able to present the Charter at the next meeting.

16.12    The Mayor then informed the council that as part of his charity events, he was holding a coffee morning on the 22^nd October at Brighton Town Hall, which would include a tour of the Police Museum, and a night at the Greyhound stadium on the 6^th November at 7.00pm.  He hoped Members would support both events.

16.13    The Mayor also drew Members attention to the work of Councillor Bennett in supporting the Pink Dolphin Appeal, and the latest fund-raising scheme of providing re-useable carrier bags for a minimum donation of a pound.