Issue - meetings

The new Mayor to make any announcements

The Mayor thanked the Council for electing him as Mayor of Melton Borough for the 2019/20 Council Year and said it was a great honour and he was extremely grateful to Councillors Bains and Chandler for their kind words.  He said

(a)  when he started writing this speech, he was going to say that it was 26 years ago that he last put on the chain at a Mayormaking ceremony and that was half a lifetime ago however now looking at the youngest Councillor, he had to correct himself and say it was far more than a whole life time ago.  A lot of things had changed in those last 25 years including new Council Offices;

(b)  asked that the Council accept that he did not twitter or tweet, nor do facebook, and he was probably unintentionally always being politically incorrect and needed all the help he could get;

(c)  it was for these reasons that he realised that there were several Members saying to themselves, ‘why do we have a Mayor,’ and could the Council find something better to spend its limited resources on. It took imagination to move away from this poverty mindset and he questioned  the role of being a Borough Councillor as coming to a meeting, reading reports and making decisions, plus a bit of ward work, and was that all that was involved?  Or were Councillors here to be part of the community, to celebrate and acknowledge the great successes in the Borough, to communicate with neighbours and be ambassadors for the Borough. Acknowledge the great contribution that our armed forces made to our lives especially the connection with the Defence Animal Training Regiment. He said they all lived in the most amazing Borough which was one of the largest in area and smallest in population and to not be embarrassed by the fact but to celebrate it and enjoy life, all would  get far more achieved if this approach was taken;

(d)  anyone could look at a balance sheet and say times were tough financially and therefore they must not be seen to be enjoying life.  He urged the Council to look beyond that balance sheet and notice an asset under the heading Officers. It was this valuable asset that the Council must encourage, treasure, nurture and manage;

(e)  they were a new Council with a new way of working including new Councillors and even more new members of staff and he wanted all to meet on an informal basis and get to put faces to those who they only knew by e-mail addresses – he had  had an idea for a barbecue or social evening for Members, officers and families where they could meet informally but he wanted to be the facilitator and the event would only be a success if it was supported by both sides. To start the ball rolling he hoped to meet some officers soon to discuss this idea and if any Member had any other thoughts that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12