Agenda item

The Mayor made the following announcements: 

·              She thanked Father Emmanuel for offering the prayers.

·              She reminded members about the sad death of past Mayor Patrick Cunneen, who died just before Christmas, after a long illness; she thanked the Deputy Mayor Councillor Kate Anolue and other members for attending his funeral on Monday 9 January 2012.

Councillors Doug Taylor and Mike Rye paid tribute to Patrick Cunneen.  The whole Council stood and observed a minute’s silence in his memory. 

Further announcements followed:

• The Mayor and the Deputy had attended numerous engagements in the borough, including many Christmas Lunches, a number of concerts and recitals, showing the abundance of talent in the borough. 

• The Mayor had enjoyed attending the New Years Day Parade, a spectacular occasion where it was wonderful to see so many people lining the streets, cheering and clapping the groups performing in the parade. 

• She thanked the Platinum Dance Group, based at Millfield Theatre for representing Enfield.  They had come ninth in the London Boroughs competition this year, as a result the Mayor’s Charity appeal will receive £1500. 

• She informed members that the Mayor’s Charity Spring Ball would be held on Saturday 24 March 2012, at Forty Hall Banqueting Suite. Tickets would be £45 each, to include a drinks reception on arrival, 3 course meal and a half bottle of wine per person.   She hoped that as many as possible would support the evening.

The Mayor announced that the Council had recently received the following awards.

1.         London Safeguarding Children Award 2011

The Mayor said that she was pleased to say that on 5December 2011 Enfield Parent Engagement Panel (PEP) won the very first London Safeguarding Children Award 2011 for emerging practice.

Anne Stoker, Enfield Parent Commissioner, was joined at the award ceremony by a number of the Enfield Parent Champions; every-one was delighted when the announcement was made. There was press interest and photographs were taken of the parents receiving the award. There were 4 projects short listed with 3 being highly commended however Enfield was the winner and the judges were extremely complimentary.

Parent Engagement Panels cut across all boundaries serving the whole Borough engaging across and within communities, promoting community cohesion. The PEPs aim to keep children, young people and communities safe and strong by increasing parental involvement.

From within the Parent Engagement Panels parent champions are coming forward. These are parents willing to go that extra mile to source and support their communities by improving access and engagement to services and provisions, particularly for those who are isolated or whom do not normally engage with others outside of their communities.

It is fantastic to hear such an important initiative getting such well deserved external recognition. 

Anne Stoker and members of the Parent Engagement Panel were presented with the award.

2.         Sword of Honour

The Sword of Honour is a prestigious award recognising the 'best of the best' in health and safety management. It was only achievable if an organisation achieves a 'Five Star' rating in the British Safety Council health and safety audit. The audit is recognised globally as one of the toughest audits to achieve.

Only 54 organisations globally were awarded the 'Sword of Honour' in 2011. Enfield Council is the only council in the country to achieve such an award.

Being awarded the Sword of Honour brings great internal and external endorsement and heightened prestige as 'best of the best' in managing health and safety.

For the Environment Department, John Griffiths and the corporate health and safety team this has been a three year plan of hard work, commitment and dedication to bring the Council to a level that is amongst the best organisations, a wonderful achievement.

John Griffiths was presented with the Sword of Honour