Agenda item - Mayor's Announcements (if any) in connection with the ordinary Council Business

Agenda item

Mayor's Announcements (if any) in connection with the ordinary Council Business

Minutes:

The Mayor made the following announcements:

 

·              She thanked Father Emmanuel for offering the blessing.

 

The Mayor highlighted the following achievements:

 

1.      National Municipal Journal award – Democratic Services Team of the Year

 

The Mayor was delighted to announce that the Council’s Scrutiny and Outreach team had won a prestigious national awardfrom the Municipal Journal in recognition of the work done with councillors to re-enforce their role as elected community leaders in Enfield.  This had been based on the work undertaken to reach out and place community engagement at the heart of the council’s democratic core, linked to scrutiny and the decision making process.

 

The Mayor highlighted the work she had personally undertaken with the team, focussed around the engagement of young people and felt that without their input it would not have been possible to deliver the Hanlon Centre or Parent Engagement Panel.

 

In winning this award the team were competing against the highest number of entries ever received from Councils all over England Scotland and Northern Ireland and the award recognised that the work being undertaken by the team was some of the best in the country.

 

The Mayor felt that the Council should all be very proud of what the team had achieved for the community, Council and themselves.

 

Mike Ahuja and members of the Corporate Scrutiny & Outreach Team were then formally presented with the award.

 

2.      Enfield Town Football Club and QEII Stadium

 

The Mayor was pleased to introduce Paul Millington, Chairman of Enfield Town Football Club, who had been invited to attend the meeting in recognition of the success achieved by the Club in gaining promotion to the Ryman Premier League in May 2012.

 

This promotion had followed the clubs move to the QEII stadium following completion of refurbishment works in November 2011, with only one home league game having been lost following relocation.

 

The refurbishment had included a new athletics track and related athletics facilities, refurbished changing rooms for the sports pitches on Enfield Playing Fields, facilities for Enfield Town FC and a new bar café in the stadium. The car park and access road had also been improved as part of the works.

 

The total cost of the works had been approximately £3.5 million and would ensure that local residents had the ability to take part in sport and physical activity at the stadium for many years to come. In addition to the football club the stadium was being well used for athletics by local schools and sports clubs and would soon be available during popular times for open public sessions.

 

External funding towards the works was generously provided by The Football Foundation (£500,000), Play Sport London (The Office of the Mayor of London, £250,000) and the London Marathon Trust (£150,000).

 

The Mayor, on behalf of the Council formally congratulated Enfield Town FC and took the opportunity to wish them the best of luck for next season.

 

Paul Millington then took the opportunity to formally thank the Council for its support of the club and the work undertaken to complete the refurbishment of the Stadium, which he highlighted was a fantastic facility.  He paid tribute to the members and officers who had been involved in the process and presented the Mayor, by way of thanks, with a framed photograph of the team celebrating promotion.

 

Further announcements followed:

 

·              The Mayor advised that she had attended the London Youth Games at Crystal Palace on Sunday 1st July. It had been a great event and she was delighted to have had the opportunity to see the borough’s teams in action.  Enfield had achieved another successful Youth Games, an Olympic and Paralympic inspired 3rd place and she expressed her thanks to everyone involved, including not only the staff, volunteers, clubs, coaches, parents but also the borough’s wonderful young people who had performed so well.

 

·              The Mayor reminded all members that her Civic Service and Thanksgiving would be taking place at 2pm on Sunday 22 July at St Edmunds RC Church.  All members were welcome and any members who had not already done so were asked to let the Mayor’s Secretary know if they would be attending.