Agenda item - Mayor's Communications.

26.1      The Mayor stated that he would like to congratulate Brighton and Hove Legal Services for winning the prestigious National annual Family Law Awards 2014 held in London on 8 October, judged by a national panel of experts in family law. This year was the first year there has been a new category – Family Law Local Authority Team of the Year – so in effect the team have been judged by lawyers external to the council to be the best Local Authority legal team in England and Wales for this area of work.

26.2      The Mayor noted that Andrew Pack, the team’s in-house advocate also won the award for Family Law Legal Commentator of the Year for his family blog which has several thousand followers.  The team has also been shortlisted for another national Local Government Lawyer Award in November for Children and Education legal advice.  

26.3      The Mayor then invited Councillor Shanks and Natasha Watson from the Legal Team to come forward to receive the awards.

26.4      The Mayor offered his congratulations to the Bereavement Team who had been awarded a Silver Gilt for the large cemetery category of South and South East in Bloom.  The 2014 Awards Ceremony took place at the Brighton & Hove Albion’s American Express Community Stadium on Wednesday 17th September.  The Extra – Mural Cemetery was selected in the large cemetery category from cemeteries covering areas as far away as Southampton to the West and Canterbury to the East.

26.5      The Mayor then invited Councillor Sykes, Ray McSweeney and Helen Touray to come forward to collect the award.

26.6      The Mayor stated that he would like to congratulate the City Transport Team who were winners of the CIVITAS award.  This was Europe’s top environmental award for policies to promote clean transport and we were named as City of the Year in the CIVITAS Awards 2014 in September.  The prize is awarded each year to the city which best demonstrates implementation of ambitious sustainable transport policies. These must show active involvement of local people, overcome challenges and help meet CIVITAS goals on cleaner, better transport in European cities.

26.7      The Mayor then invited Tom Campbell to come forward to receive the award.

26.8      The Mayor informed the meeting that he had accepted a revised Notice of Motion, from the Green Group, Item 39(c), ‘ActionAid’ which was detailed in the addendum papers as the final paragraph had inadvertently been shown under the supporting information paragraph rather than in the actual wording of the motion.