· To receive a nomination from the Leader of the Council to confer the title of Honorary Alderwoman to Maureen Gant;
· To receive a nomination from the Leader of the Council to confer the title of Honorary Alderman to Michael Greatorex
Minutes:
Announcement from the Mayor
I’m going to go straight into acknowledging exactly for those who were not present for prayers earlier on that we have sadly lost a current serving councillor Michael Greatorex and an ex-councillor, ex-Mayoress of the Borough Mrs. Mary Oates and before we move on to anything else, I think it would only be appropriate if we pause for a minutes silence for both of those two friends who we’ve sadly lost in the past couple of weeks.
So, if you’d like to be upstanding please.
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen, please be seated.
I think given the huge respect that those of us who knew both Michael and Mary, it’s only appropriate that before we move on to any other items of business that we allow a few minutes to hear tributes from various Councillors about those dear departed friends. So I’m going to invite Councillor Jeremy Oates to speak about his mother for a few minutes. Over to you Jeremy.
Councillor Jeremy Oates:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. I’m very much aware that there aren’t many people left in the room now who served on the Council at the same time as Mary did. In fact she was elected in 2004 at the same time as those two fellows at the end. She stood as a paper candidate in 2005 and the irony of what I’m about to say, as she’s no longer with us, but the Council Chamber became a new lease of life to her. In the year 2000 she had breast cancer and had a lump removed, she was also was made redundant / took early retirement whilst she was off through ill health, so she was at quite a low point in her life at the time she was elected onto the Council. So Tamworth Borough Council gave her a new purpose and a new lease of life in her early retirement. I do wonder, and have said this before, something about ageing councillors, the Council keeps them going because they’ve got something to live for and something to do and that was certainly the case with Mary. It was a privilege to work with my parents on the Council and I know other councillors have worked with wives and sons and it’s often a different dynamic when you’re working with a family member. I was the Leader of the Council for a while, whilst she was on the Council and while she was a Cabinet member and to be honest I tended to treat her a little bit harder than the other Cabinet members because I could. And because of that relationship I was able to push a little bit harder and use her as an example and say something like, if this is how I treat my Mom imagine what I’m going to treat you like when you step out of line … Danny, Rob, etc. I appreciate many didn’t know her she was first elected in 2004. She became Housing Scrutiny Chair when we had Housing Scrutiny Committee and there were two things that jumped out from that period, one was the then Deputy Leader of the Council attended a Scrutiny Committee to present a paper and this was a tribute to the community at the time and to the chair. You soon find out who your friends are when you sit in front of that Committee. The second was at the time of one of the biggest corporate projects the Borough Council was running, the Housing Stock Transfer, which was pre-ballot so it was all being put together and worked up and this is something the Scrutiny chairs delayed by three months because the Scrutiny Committee and my Mother were not happy that we had consulted appropriately with the trade unions, so a massive corporate project stalled for three months because of a Scrutiny Committee. And I know all the key members at the time were involved in that decision. She eventually went on to become Housing Portfolio Holder and went on to go through the Housing Stock Transfer Ballot and what she bought to that role was a level of empathy and understanding. She was born and brought up in a rented house. She spent part of her life in a Council house and ultimately became a homeowner with my dad in the seventies, so she’d had experience of the full range of housing that Tamworth had to offer. She was able to bring that to the role, bring empathy to the role and with a background with the Children’s Society and for the charity she worked for, she was able to bring that local understanding of the issues to it. Mr. Mayor, it’s not up to me to say much more because I’d be biased but I do know there was a lot of respect for her here in the Council and even when she left in 2012, which was a long time ago now, she certainly didn’t just leave she’s continually mentioned that there was a definite level of relationships while she was here. One thing I did miss there was she was very supportive of my Father when he was Mayor and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Her only regret that she had on the Council was that she didn’t have opportunity to be Mayor, but she did have a few years on Cabinet. She certainly played a role in a non-civic function so that’s all I have to say Mr. Mayor just a bit of info for those that did know her. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Jeremy. Councillor Cook, Danny:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. To be honest as per usual Jeremy has stolen all my thunder about what an absolutely phenomenal councillor and wonderful human being Mary Oates was. I was only talking to Mick a few weeks ago saying I feel like I took a journey with Mary. We were elected on the same day, we became scrutiny chairmen almost immediately. I remember once going for a scrutiny chairmen’s training course in Warwick with Mary with an overnight stay and I managed to ply her with way too much brandy and she was telling me stories from Jeremy’s childhood, so I was texting Jeremy these stories as he’s texting his mum saying ‘shut up’ which was a lovely three-way conversation. Jeremy might remember that. But I also sat on Housing Scrutiny when I remember Jeremy said the Deputy Leader of the Council came before the Committee and was given the torrid time, not just by the opposition, but by his own party and I remember him walking out saying you don’t know who your friends are, well that was the kind of Committee that Mary ran. If a job’s worth doing, it needs doing right. I remember fondly actually, I’ll always remember when Mary was first appointed as Scrutiny Chairman, it was actually Dennis Powick on the opposition benches who happened to point out and as conservatives we’d never thought of this, actually Jeremy was Housing Portfolio holder and the Housing Scrutiny Chair was his mother Mary and it was a fair point actually how can you scrutinise your own son, I can guarantee you she did. So when Jeremy says he was a little bit hard on his Mother when she did become a Cabinet member it was vice versa for the first time I recall. I’ll always remember the launch of the Mercian Regiment Mr. Mayor, Prince Charles was in town that day to launch the Mercian Regiment and he was taken to meet the civic dignitaries he was introduced to Councillor Jeremy Oates, this is the Leader of the Council, this is the Mayor of the Council Councillor Mick Oates, this is Councillor Mrs Mary Oates, actually Cabinet member, Mick’s wife and Jeremy’s mum. This is Councillor Terry Dix he is Leader of the County Council, Mary’s brother and this is Brian Jenkins, the MP for Tamworth who is related to them secondly and Prince Charles must have walked out of that room thinking oh my god this is an in-bred town. But actually just to expand that further I think it really says something that actually between the Dix’ and the Oates’ family across both sides of the Chamber this family has truly given to this town and just remember Mary has been a massive part of that family and I truly do miss Mary.
Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Simon.
Councillor Simon Peaple, Leader of the Opposition:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. Obviously I extend my condolences individually to Jeremy and to his father and I’d just like to make three points. The first one is that I saw Mary not very long ago before she died, she was in the sewing club at St. Peter’s, Glascote Heath. I parked in the St. Peters, completely unrelated, saw her and she immediately said hello, hi, you know absolutely lovely as always and I met Mick coming in to pick her up on the way out and when I heard the news I can just think well there’s a couple and that’s been broken, but it’s very sad and nothing can change that but in the respect that she’s held will hopefully help. So that’s my first point. My second point Mr. Mayor and I’ll say this as a parent and also as somebody who has known Jeremy over a long period of time. If you want to understand somebody who had success in life in transmitting their values then you tend to look at their children and I’ve known Jeremy in politics in this town for longer than either of us probably care to remember. He looks way younger than me but what I would say is this, during the last General Election, they come a bit more frequently these days, he and I were agents and we had those two stoppages and the terrorist event and in each case as agents we had to confer with each other as to when the appropriate time was to restart and neither wanting to get it wrong because each party because each party is trying to get it right but equally we had to get back out there and prove the democratic process wasn’t going to stop. And the lovely thing and I don’t think either of us admitted to this being not true since so we’ll have to regard as true is we told each other the truth, we kept each other fairly and squarely informed and if you’re going to judge Mary think of this if she can produce such a thoroughly decent human being as a son then she must have done many things that are right. And the third thing I would say is this we are currently going through Brexit some of us are old enough to remember the Miners’ Strike in the mid-eighties Councillor Cook has alluded to the fact that Terry Dix spans two parties, we won’t go into who was on the right side. But, during that strike there was a deep, deep split and I know to this day that people with whom are my treasured friends because we were on the same side and I know how difficult it used to be to be in a family that was so political and to come out in a different way and what Mary did for Mick was to stand by them and they stood by each other and they carried on doing it. And I think that shows a terrific quality in an individual so those are the three points I’d like to make Mr. Mayor in offering condolences thank you.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you very much for some lovely words. Councillor Bilcliff.
Councillor Bilcliff:
Mr Mayor I can’t speak as confidently as most Councillor as I didn’t know Mary, all I can say is that it appears that it was my loss listening to what’s been said in this Chamber tonight. All I can say is to both Michael and Jeremy is that this Group offers its sincere condolences to the whole family and we’re very sorry for your loss.
Thank you.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you for those words, thank you.
Do we have anybody else? No, okay. Mary was, and I’ve got nothing else to say, other than Mary was a lovely, lovely, lovely lady and she will be missed by everybody who knew her, whether you knew her well or knew her just briefly.
We’ll move on to tributes to our dear Michael Greatorex, has anyone have anything they’d like to say about Michael. Councillor Cook, Danny.
Councillor D. Cook:
With your permission Mr. Mayor, I’ll save my thoughts for whenever the motions, because I have written a bit of a speech for that if that’s okay.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Do people wish to hold a general consensus that we hold fire until we move to the Alderman status for any comments about Michael I’m just looking around for nods at this point. Okay, we’ll wait for the Alderman Status notification.
So, for those people at the back of the room you’ve just seen something that doesn’t happen very often unfortunately Councillors in office do pass away and past Councillors pass away and normally those Councillors that knew of them are given the opportunity to express a few words about them.
In the announcements section this evening we have some rather pleasant items to deal with first. First one of which is to receive a nomination from the Leader of the Council to confer title of Honorary Alderwoman to Maureen Gant so Councillor Cook over to you.
Councillor D. Cook:
Thank you very much Mr. Mayor. Maureen was first elected to Tamworth Borough Council in 2003, she remained a serving Councillor until 2019 when she stood down, 16 consecutive years serving the Spital Ward in our historic borough. On this Council she had a few positions but mainly I’d like to draw your attention to the last years as Chairman of the Audit & Governance. She did it diligently, she did it professionally and she did it well. I for once believed that if Cabinet is the captain of the ship to set the direction, Audit & Governance is the engine room. It keeps us in a straight line. Maureen kept the engine running very well over those years and we need to remember that but of course not to miss out but she was also the Mayor of Tamworth twice in that period and I believe that 2006 and 2015 where she was an excellent first citizen who bought a grace, a class and sense of the humour to the role. This is without mentioning the years of charity and voluntary work hand in hand with her husband Kenneth Gant, Honorary Freeman, giving as much to the residents and to the town that she loved and served as she possibly could. Mr. Mayor I could extol Maureen’s merits for Alderwoman status for hours to come but the whole Chamber knows Maureen as a person, the person she is and the great Councillor she was, therefore I am happy to indeed be blessed to move the motion to grant her the much deserved title of Honorary Alderwoman of Tamworth. Open for a seconder thank you Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Councillor Cook, do we have anybody who wishes to second. Councillor Peaple.
Councillor Simon Peaple:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. It’s a great pleasure to second this nomination, not only because we agreed that twelve years consecutive was enough and therefore she would qualify but more because of the person that she is. Over the time that I’ve known her on the Council and outside she’s always demonstrated not only the commitment to doing the job of a Councillor but in doing it really, really well. She also brings to the role, you’ve mentioned all these governors Councillor Cook, but she also bought to the role real probity and a real belief in values. Her values were not to be trampled on and they weren’t to be trampled on by the opposition or by others but she was also not be trampled by her own. So, if there’s an issue she’d say so and I know from other members of the conservative group that if she thought they ought to behave in a particular way she wasn’t afraid to talk and that is actually something that is most hard to sometimes keep hold of is to ensure that your own side live up to your own expectations as well as the other side. It’s always much easier so I think it is verified it was my pleasure to move the status of the Freeman for her husband, I think it’s incredible not only has she done all the things that we’ve already heard about but she also supported him. I’ve been there, I know what it is to have a spouse who puts up with everything that goes on, I’ve seen what it’s like and Maureen did for Ken what Sheree has done for me over many years being there when I’ve been out at meetings, for being there when I’m worrying about something didn’t immediately seem important and that is a massive, massive contribution to the civic life of the town and I believe she deserves this status, it’s not just for all her work but for all the work that she made possible by Ken and I know she would value her contribution to supporting Ken as part of that and the charity work she did and her commitment to the Royal British Legion and I think it’s absolutely phenomenal and so it’s with great pleasure that I second this nomination. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Councillor Peaple. Does anybody else wish to comment on the nomination. Councillor Standen.
Councillor Patrick Standen:
Just a quick word, When I first was elected to this Council back in 1990 and I got to meet Ken and you can’t separate Maureen and Ken, I got to meet Maureen when I came back onto it in 2012. You couldn’t meet a nicer couple, so really happy to move this.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you very much Councillor Standen.
Motion moved by Councillor D Cook and seconded by Councillor S Peaple
If that’s it for the comments we’ll move to the vote, so the proposal is to grant or confer the title of Honorary Alderwoman to Maureen Gant. All those in favour, that is carried. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. For those at the back what we often do is confer an honorary title to those Councillors who serve three or more consecutive terms of office whether that be an Alderman status or an Alderwoman status, just so that you’re aware of what that procedure was about.
The next item is to receive a nomination from the Leader of the Council to confer the title of Honorary Alderman to the late Councillor Michael Greatorex. Councillor Cook.
Councillor Daniel Cook:
Thank you again Mr. Mayor. Just like Mary this one is going to be hard so if I start to struggle please bear with me. If the first motion to give former Councillor Gant the Alderwoman status was a pleasure, I really wish I wasn’t stood here tonight Mr. Mayor. I believe my good friend and colleague Michael sat just over there, ready to tell me again after the meeting which bits I’d got wrong, because he was good at that. Michael was a treasured colleague, a sounding board for many thoughts I had over the years, he was honest, he was loyal and he was a gentleman. He was first elected in 2010 to the Mercian Ward, obviously the ward he shared with yourself, Mr. Mayor where he served diligently, honestly and with a passion. I recall he was the Cabinet member for Housing in 2013 when the Council first produced it’s thirty year HRA business plan and it was one hell of an undertaking that first time. I remember it well and Michael did that with a passion with a foresight checking every detail as I remember. He was absolutely dedicated to what he did. He was also an incredibly effective Chairman in planning Mr. Mayor, he was certainly serving the town. Also he was elected to be Watling South Seat for the County Council in 2013 where he had the pleasure of serving two years consecutive as the Chairman of the County Council representing Staffordshire and its values all over the County and I’d like to think also pushing a bit of Tamworth in that role as well. As I said Mr. Mayor, Michael was a friend, a colleague and I miss him dearly and I really wish I didn’t have to stand here and move this motion tonight. As has been said we did agree cross party that it would be twelve consecutive years’ service or three terms to receive the Alderman, Michael has done nine and a half years consecutive but has sadly passed away. You can’t give any more than that so I’m happy to move the motion Mr. Mayor that Michael Greatorex be given Honorary Freeman of the Borough. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Richard Kingstone: Councillor Peaple.
Councillor Simon Peaple:
Mr. Mayor, I’m not trying to pick anything up but I take it he was still talking on Honorary Alderman.
Councillor Daniel Cook:
Yes apologies, sorry Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Simon Peaple:
As you finished I thought I had better double check.
Councillor Daniel Cook:
No thank you Simon, sorry it was Honorary Alderman.
Councillor Simon Peaple:
As has been said Mr. Mayor, we agreed in Council that the automatic confirm would come for those who retire for at least three terms consecutive. Clearly, sadly Michael wasn’t able to reach that milestone and we took the decision with regard for Councillor Claymore that we would regard the sad event of their demise as not being a reason to bar it and we feel that this is also true in the case of Councillor Greatorex. The interesting thing since his very sad death is that one word keeps coming up in every conversation about him and that is that he’s a gentleman. Doesn’t matter who you talk to, everybody includes that particular description of him and those on the County who know him way better than I do and the realms of you who obviously know him much better because he had been in group meetings and other meetings that come with it but that’s the theme that has come out in every single conversation that I’ve had for all sides from all walks and I think it’s a tremendous thing that everyone can remember in that way because it’s so difficult sometimes in politics to do that and yet he achieved it. Allusions have been made to his role in planning I used to hear all about it every time Tom came back from a Planning Meeting he would be telling me about it, and what a great Chairman Michael was and has supported him and how encouraging he was and that’s why I singled that point out in my tribute that went out in the Council statement, because he really did encourage somebody young, somebody from the other side to learn and to develop as a Councillor and I think that is fantastic. I can only say how genuinely we offer our sincere condolences to his family, he was somebody else, who we talked to, we talked about history, we talked about various encounters in Council. We didn’t always agree if you were regularly in the Council, but the lovely theme was that afterwards you could chat about it or laugh about it whatever because he was a gentleman and that’s how he’ll remain in memory of the Members who served with him. Thank you Mr. Mayor and therefore I second his nomination for Alderman. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you very much for those words. Councillor Bilcliff.
Councillor R. Bilcliff:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. Obviously I’ve only been a Councillor for three and half years. Every time I spoke to Michael as Simon said you could only gather the fact that he was actually a gentleman. He always answered my questions honestly with integrity, he will be so missed on that side of the Chamber. UKIP had people to stand in both those wards and I had the dubious task that Nigel Farage’s has had, to ask them to stand down which we did as you’ve obviously seen. Because we’ve got that much respect for that chap that’s the reason, not because we couldn’t, because we didn’t want to. All I can say is it true what they say that the good go young. I may be here for some time.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Councillor Bilcliff. Does anybody else wish to…. Councillor Cooke, Chris Cooke.
Councillor Chris Cooke:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. When I heard about the loss of Michael it was actually on Facebook and I was so shocked and devastated as well. For all the time I’ve known him, this was also from my father was a Councillor as well. I always had a lot of respect. He was always helpful, he was always polite, he was also a role model as well. On behalf of myself and also my Dad we’re both very sorry and upset at his loss.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Councillor Cooke for those lovely words. Councillor Ford.
Councillor Richard Ford:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. Councillor Tina Clements has asked me to read this on her behalf and hope it’s acceptable for everybody. Michael and I first met in 2009 when we both attended a half day selection course. We both walked in together and found out that we had got so much in common and I was in awe of his love of history and his home town in Winster in Derbyshire. We were both elected into Council in 2010 and I joined him on the County in 2017 when he was also re-elected. As things overlapped, we have always worked together on many projects in the community. Michael is going to be sorely missed and I truly will miss his principals, his integrity and honesty. Thank you.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Councillor Ford for those comments for Councillor Clements. Councillor Standen.
Councillor Patrick Standen:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. I’m sorry to be standing here. Michael was a gentleman I think we all agree on that. Hard working, didn’t agree with him politically at times often disagreeing with him, but never ever personal. You could be disagreeable. As Planning Chair he was exceptionally good he bought things like issue papers where he could discuss things up front, almost common sense revolutionary where Members could give feedback what they wanted before it came to the Committee. It’s obviously hindsight but somebody had to bring it in and that came under his chairmanship. He was hard working in his local area, like when there was a fire in Kimberley, and the Fire Engine couldn’t get down the street because cars were blocking it and we worked together with residents to get some markings on the road to try and prevent cars blocking so that Fire Engines could actually get in and save people’s lives. It’s for issues like this, he will be missed. He was definitely hard working and he’ll be hard to replace, very much missed especially by his family. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Councillor Standen. Councillor Jeremy Oates.
Councillor Jeremy Oates:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. A bit of tribute for Michael and support for the motion to award him Honorary Alderman and as a Council family we’re having a terrible year so am pleased to be approaching December and it’s going to be behind us. Michael has been described as a gentleman, there are certain things that make up a gentleman, if he disagreed with you, you knew he disagreed with you, he didn’t pull any punches but he did it in a calm and appropriate manner and he would talk through the issue and at the end we would still disagree but we’d thrashed it out properly and appropriately. He was thorough and thoughtful. I’d say thorough, if you suggested something to him or something was tabled at a meeting he would go away and think about doing his homework, he would then come back and produce the evidence for his argument. I do recall, I’m sure some people in the room will recall is that at a political meeting in Wilnecote, we were discussing a fund raising activity which involved a treasure hunt using our own vehicles, and Mike was sat there and thought I’m not comfortable with this. He gets his wallet out and produces his insurance certificate for his vehicle and reads out ‘I cannot take part in this as it constitutes a rally and I’m not insured to driving my vehicle. That was the sort of detail he could turn to immediately and present while we’re all going on about it being a great day, he was okay guys slow down. And that’s the sort of thing that Michael would do. He was very thorough; the big thing for me having worked with Michael was how grateful he always was. He had a passion to learn and learn from anyone he could do who he thought would have knowledge or be able to assist him. I took him to the County Council to view his first full Council meeting at the County, he was grateful for the lift but the thing that really got to him was we had lunch afterwards and he found out I’d paid for that. And he was always gushing in his thanks because it wasn’t just a freebie on the Council, I’d bought him lunch and he wasn’t expecting it. The great thing that I will remember from Michael was being his agent and being Moira’s agent this year. Throughout the campaign and throughout my time on the Council he was very often taken me to one side and would say you’re doing a great job Jeremy, thank you very much for all you’re doing. Because as a profession as it were we don’t get thanked enough and we don’t say thank you to each other enough, so Michael made sure that if somebody had delivered a good job he would pat them on the shoulder and say you’ve done your job thank you very much and keep up the good work and I think in awarding him Alderman for me is how I am saying you know what you’ve done a cracking job Michael, thank you very much.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you for those lovely words Councillor Oates. Now Councillor Sheree Peaple.
Councillor Sheree Peaple:
Thank you Mr. Mayor. As as already been expressed I’m really sorry to be standing here saying these words and I was very shocked and saddened when I heard about Michael’s passing. I’d like to extend my condolences to Moira and his family. Michael and I both served as County Councillors from 2013 – 2017 and we absolutely disagreed on virtually everything but we did it in a very fair, open and accepted ways. He was a true gentleman epitomised and when I lost my seat very narrowly, he came over to me at the end of the Count and told me how sorry he was to lose me and genuinely and I thought yes I think you mean it. So he was a true gentleman and he’ll be very much missed and I will definitely support this nomination. Thank you.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Councillor Peaple, do we have anything else to say about the nomination. I suppose at this point what I ought to say is as Michael’s fellow ward councillor the words that you’ve said have been wonderful and all I can say is I’m going to miss him dreadfully and I think we all will.
Motion moved by Councillor D Cook and Seconded by Councillor R Bilcliff
Let’s move to the vote – all those in favour. That’s unanimous thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Councillor Peaple.
Councillor Simon Peaple:
Mr. Mayor I’m delighted that both those nominations went through. When it was muted that we going to have the extraordinary meeting to discuss the nominations, I did write to the Chief Executive expressing my desire, especially if it wasn’t for a general election, that we ought to catch up on what I believe one nomination which hadn’t been put forward previously and I spoke to the Leader in the case of nominating former Council Leader and former MP Brian Jenkins who has on the first time we did the catch up he was still a County Councillor and therefore politically active therefore ineligible. Subsequently, he has retired I can vouch for the fact that he declined the opportunity to re-enter the fray on various occasions. And I’m therefore looking for the process to be confirmed that we will go through. The reason why he wouldn’t qualify automatically is that back in 1996 there was a by-election in Tamworth and it was a conservative majority of nine and a half thousand, labour were confident in winning and indeed proved to be the case. But there was pressure on him to resign from the Council to prove that he believed that he in April would be elected as the Member of Parliament so he actually stepped down with about a month to go in the third term and as subsequently people with know he served fourteen years as the Member of Parliament, four years as a County Councillor, a former Mayor, a former Leader of a tory driven Council and so I’m looking for the support of the Leader of the Council for that process now being taken forward. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you Councillor Peaple. Can I take it that that process is going to move forward or do you want to make a comment.
Councillor Daniel Cook:
Yes I would, thank you Mr. Mayor. The Leader of the Opposition is correct we have spoken about this and from a personal perspective I am more than happy to support the idea of the nomination going through to the Nominations Committee, not full Council. And I’ve already given my word, I would support this nomination.
Moved by Councillor S Peaple and seconded by Councillor D Cook
Councillor Richard Kingstone:
Thank you so we look forward to the nomination going through to the Nominations Committee, when is that, is it January or something like that. Whenever it may be next.