To receive Announcements, if any, from the Mayor, the Leader, Head of Paid Service and Returning Officer.
Minutes:
Before the start of the meeting the Mayor explained that there were 18 Councillors present in the Council Chamber, while all other Councillors had joined online.
For residents watching at home, The Mayor explained that only Councillors present in the Council Chamber were able to vote at this meeting. Members attending remotely were able to ask and answer questions, and to speak during debates. Seats in the Chamber had been allocated to the two political groups based upon the total number of seats they held on the council overall.
The reason for holding the meeting this way was because the Council was required to hold its meetings in one place, but at the same time it was also required to minimise the risk of anyone transmitting COVID during the meeting. By running the meeting this way the Council had been able to avoid the significant cost of hiring a larger meeting space to accommodate all Councillors safely.
The Mayor also advised that he had agreed with both Groups that the order of the agenda was slightly amended. Item 8, the Recommendations of Cabinet or Committees for Decision, was heard after Item 5, Croydon Question Time.
The Mayor
In his announcements the Mayor thanked everyone who attended the Holocaust Memorial Day the previous Thursday. On Saturday 15 January, the Tamil Harvest and Thanksgiving Festival of Thai-Pongal was celebrated in Braithwaite Hall.
Unfortunately, both the Bollywood Dinner & Dance Fundraiser and the second round of the Mayoral Awards event had been cancelled, but there were a number of upcoming events in February and March.
The first was the International Language Day, honoured by UNESCO, which was being held in Braithwaite Hall on Monday 21 February. This was part of the International Language Week being held at Croydon Library from Monday 21 February to Saturday 26 February 2022.
The Mayor took this opportunity to mention that he would be working with the lead Cabinet Member and officers to bring forward proposals for the Council to agree to recognise and celebrate the Tamil Heritage Month of January and International Language Day every year.
The London Assembly had recently designated January to celebrate Tamil Heritage, which coincided with the Tamil celebration of Thai Pongal and the Mayor looked forward to working with the Cabinet Member and officers on bringing those proposals forwards.
Continuing with Mayoral events, he would be holding a charity fundraiser dinner, organised by the Royal Tandoori Selsdon and the Bangladesh welfare association on Monday 7 March.
This would be followed by a Cake Celebration on Friday 11 March to raise funds for the Mayor’s charities.
There would also be a Tree Planting Ceremony at Croydon University Hospital on Wednesday 23 March to mark ‘Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee 2022 and Looking to the Future from Covid’ through The Queen’s Green Canopy Initiative.
Finally, he would be celebrating Bangladesh Independence Day & Victory Day at Braithwaite Hall on a date to be confirmed during March.
The Leader
The Mayor invited the Leader, Councillor Hamida Ali, to make her announcements.
The Leader confirmed that she had no announcements to make.
The Chief Executive
The Mayor invited the Chief Executive, Katherine Kerswell in her capacity as Head of Paid Service, to make her announcements.
The Chief Executive updated Members on the progress of recruitment to the new corporate management team. In addition to the appointments being covered later in the meeting, two further appointments had been made to the post of Corporate Director, Adult Social Care and Health and Annette McPartland had been appointed to that role. The other was to the Chief People Officer to which Dean Shoesmith had been appointed.