Agenda item - Mayor's Communications.

62.1      The Mayor stated that he wished to hold a minute’s silence for former mayoress Pat Smith who was consort to David Smith when he was Mayor in 2006 and had recently passed away. He offered the Council’s condolences to David who is an Honorary Alderman of the City and his family.

62.2      The Mayor then outlined various activities that he had been involved in since the last meeting:

·      The Acts of Remembrance across the City went very well, and I would like to thank the Remembrance Committee for helping to ensure that the ceremonies went ahead in very challenging circumstances.

·       I would also like to thank the events team, Ian Taylor and Daniel Watson for their input throughout.

·       Attendance at all the ceremonies was kept to a minimum to adhere to Government guidelines, people were masked and socially distanced.

·       An additional thank you goes to my Chaplaincy the Interfaith Contact Group and Father Martin Poole.

·       I have been kept busy recording messages for various organisations, attending virtual events and meetings. People are becoming very adept at virtual meetings, but it will be a good day when the vaccine is rolled out and we can start socialising again. There are a lot of lonely people out there, which one of my charities Together Co, is working hard to address.

·       I would like to congratulate the Democratic Services Team who won the Mayor’s October Charity Quiz night which raised funds for the charities.

62.3      Finally, he hoped that all councillors will have read the PR relating to the Mary Clarke Statue appeal which was circulated on the 15 December by the Civic Office. He had hoped to be able to unveil the actual Maquette, but unfortunately this had proved to be too difficult in the current climate.