Council and democracy

Agenda item

Announcements on behalf of the Mayor or the Leader of the Council

Minutes:

The Mayor invited all those present to reflect on and remember Thurrock’s fallen of World War One.

 

The Mayor welcomed Members to the second Full Council meeting of the year and that despite being at the end of February we had woken up to a lovely snowy day.

 

February marked the occasion of the Chinese New Year, the year of the dog, which a number of Thurrock residents had celebrated and the Mayor congratulated everyone involved. 

 

The Thurrock’s 13th Civic Awards were held in February with over 100 nominations for nine awards, it had showed that Thurrock residents went out of their way to help others. The Mayor congratulated all the nominees, the winners and the joint organising team of Members and Officers.

 

The Mayor stated that Contact the Elderly were working to reduce loneliness for Thurrock elderly residents and planned to open their 8th group shortly. With Friends of Blackshots had successfully obtained a grant for funding benches on Blackshots field so that residents could watch the sports being played.

 

The Mayor also stated that Thurrock Mind, Stanford, Corringham and Tilbury First Responders and One Community Development Trust had been nominated for the Queens Award for Voluntary Services.

 

The Mayor was proud to state that this month the Mayor’s parlour had been decorated by the photography work of four students from Gateway Academy. The Mayor stated that the work was of top quality and was sure that Members would be impressed when they saw it. That the school had asked Members for comments about the quality of the work and hoped Members would not mind taking time to fill in the comments book. The Mayor also thanked Gabi Randyte, Jo Mclean, Precious Daniel and David Ojetola of Gateway Academy and Lisa Anderson of Well House Art Gallery for the display.

 

February also marked 100 years of women suffrage. It was a hard fought battle, using all means to entrench equality in the law.  In reality, it had taken 10 more years before all women above the age of 21 had the right to vote. So finally, tolerance and equity of treatment, at least at the ballot box, was won.

 

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Gledhill, updated Members on what Thurrock Council had been undertaking over the past few days to keep the borough moving in the adverse weather. That approximately 226 miles of highway had been gritted with the first priority being major routes such as the A13 and bus routes. Those secondary routes such as those at significant risk and high usage were also gritted. That in the adverse weather primary routes had also received grit runs, up to three times a day in some cases. Those crews were deployed on Tuesday throughout the day with the snow plan being activated at 6.30am today.

 

Residents that cleared their own pathways would not face prosecution as long as the snow was cleared away safely and that it had not caused a hazard.

 

The Leader stated that he would be attending the Association of South Essex Local Authorities to discuss Thurrock proposals for Government and would update Group Leader and bring item back to the next Council meeting.