Agenda item - Mayor's Communications.

49.1         The Mayor informed the council of the sad news of the death of Barry Sanders, a former Mayor of Hove Borough Council.  She also offered the council’s condolences to Councillor Hamilton whose mother, Olive Hamilton who was mayoress to Leslie Hamilton senior when he was Mayor of Hove Borough Council in 1978/79 and 1996/97.

49.2         A minute’s sielnce was then held as a mark of respect.

49.3         The Mayor noted that the Council had recently agreed to sign-up to the TUC’s Dying to Work Charter which sought to protect rights at work for those facing terminal illness. She stated that she was pleased to welcome Laurie Heselden from the TUC to the meeting and noted that Laurie, along with Councillor Nancy Platts as the Leader of the Council, the Chief Exceutive, Sue Beatty from Unison and Mark Turner from GMB would also be co-signatories to the Charter.  She then invited them to come forward to sign the Charter.

49.4         The Mayor stated that she wished to congratulate the council’s Access to Education Team who, working with Public Health colleagues had won a joint national award from Modeshift for the SMILE Project.

She note that the 'SMILE project' focused on journeys we make every day - in particular our journeys to nursery and to school. It helped children, parents and carers build activities into their daily lives to improve their mental health and well-being. The SMILE project’ showed how we can do these activities on our everyday journeys.

‘SMILE’ was a child-friendly version of the ‘5 ways to well-being’. The ‘5 ways to well-being’ were five evidence-based steps people can take to improve their mental health and well-being.

The Mayot then invited members of the teams involved along with Councillor Moonan to come forward to collect the award.

49.5         The Mayor then stated tha she would like to offer the council’s  congratulations to the Brighton Table Tennis Club who won Club of the Year at the Pride of Sports Awards in November and to Whitehawk football Club who won in the category of Active Sussex Club of the Year. The annual event was organised by Active Sussex and recognised inspirational and ground-breaking heroes involved with sports and physical activity. 

49.6         The Mayor stated that she also wished to personally thank the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Alan Robins and former Mayors, Councillors Dee Simson, Pete West, Garry Peltzer-Dunn and Carol Theobald for representing the Mayoralty during the election period.

49.7         The Mayor then reminded colleagues that the next gala dinner in support of the Mayor’s charities was taking place on the 27^th March. Anyone who would like to purchase tickets should get in touch with the Civic Office.

49.8         Finally, the Mayor stated that she was aware that the Council usually sought nominations for the Deputy Mayor-Elect at the December Council meeting and she had therefore agreed to take this as a late item as listed in the addendum papers.