Agenda item - Mayor's Communications.

3.1             The Mayor asked the Council to stand for a minute’s silence as a mark of respect for ex-councillor Norman Wright who had served on Brighton Borough Council from 1992 to 1996 and had passed away recently.

3.2             Following the minute’s silence, the Mayor stated that she wished to inform the Council that one of her charities, PDSA had indicated that it wanted to concentrate on its national campaign and therefore could not be involved at a local level.  As such, she had decided to adopt RISE as her third mayoral charity for the remainder of her mayoral year.

3.3             The Mayor stated that she was very pleased to invite Councillor Mitchell as Chair of the Overview & Scrutiny Commission to come forward and receive the Centre for Public Scrutiny’s national award for Innovation following the Scrutiny Review on Climate Change.

3.4             The Mayor then drew Members’ attention the addendum papers that had been circulated prior to the meeting and noted that copies of the Notices of Motion listed as Items 15(d) and 15(f) on the agenda had been re-circulated.  Item 15(d) was to be seconded by Councillor Gilbey and item 15(f) had slightly amended wording at paragraph 1(a).  She also noted that Item 13, Annual Report of the Audit Committee was being reported to the council for information rather than approval.

3.5             The Mayor then drew Members’ attention to the aide memoir included in the agenda papers and noted that an extension granted to Members’ speaking times was limited to 3 minutes and not 5 as shown.

3.6             Finally, the Mayor stated that she was aware of a number of items regarding Gypsies and Travellers and therefore intended to take Items 7(b) petition for debate and 15(f) notice of motion, together with one debate, which would have no time limit and at the end of which she would take votes on each item separately.