Minutes:
The following Announcements were made:-
Mayor P Thurgood -
Welcome to this festive period special Council, I have 2 announcements.
First that we have a minute silence for a former Mayor, Mayor Owen was buried today so please be respectful and one minute please
A one minute silence followed
Thank you, second announcement I must apologise to those that wasn’t here when we said prayers that was an error on my part I got in my head 17.50 so I do apologise most sincerely for that and it will be addressed at next full Council meeting where we will have our prayers at 18.00 in the members room then re convene with all other members at 18.10. Apologies for that. Thank you,
Councillor Dr S Peaple -
Mr Mayor with your indulgence and the Councils indulgence as per our conversation I am grateful to you for calling the minutes silence for Dereck Owen, Dereck’s family were very pleased today that he was been remembered tonight. As you mentioned he was cremated today mention was made today at the funeral both of his public services and his commitment to the town.
He was born in Wilnecote, grew up in Wilnecote and lived in Wilnecote before he moved to Belgrave at the end but I suppose not everything can have a good ending in regards to Wilnecote. But from a practical point of view he was somebody who really felt for the town, I think myself and Councillor Standen had the longest overlap.
He was a lovely warm individual and he chaired meetings very carefully, at the time there was about a 20/10 split on the Council so a significant number of opposition members he always accorded them with respect and time, from that point of view he was a model citizen and I thank you for giving us the opportunity to remember him tonight so thank you.
One other thing at the time he was presented with this Alderman award I saw his son about a week and half later and he said how he had come home thrilled to bits and put the certificate on his wall, And can I thank members, because the Alderman awards means that some of the people who served for many years in his case received the recognition and I’m grateful to everyone for making that possible. Thank you Mr Mayor.
Councillor D Cook -
Thank you Mr Mayor. Thank you Councillor Peaple I have got a note here you are quite right with regards to the previous minutes and Councillor B Price been appointed as Champion. How our Constitution is worded, Says that no one receiving SRA or a Chair can be a Champion under a Cabinet member, Myself and Councillor Pritchard will work to rectify the Constitution on that matter through its natural process as the Committee Meets coming fourth,. We will honour that for now as the Legislation says if you’re a Scrutiny Chairman we have actually worded it wrong in our Constitution, in the meantime Councillor Ben Price cannot carry on with his role as Champion I hope he continues to help Councillor Claymore.
I would also like to announce I will be appointing Thomas Jay as a Champion of Performance and Finance working along myself helping the budget process and improving quality performance report.