Agenda item

The Chairman made the following announcements:

Firstly I would like to thank you all for electing me as your Chairman for the coming year.  It is a great honour and my Mother and Father and family are incredibly proud so thank you.

I want to pay tribute to last year's Chairman Cllr McGregor.  In extraordinary circumstances he rose to the challenge exceptionally well supporting local initiatives set up during the pandemic.  Most notably was Shopital which helped Hospital staff get essential goods when it was very difficult to do so in the early weeks of the pandemic – why we ever needed a run on Toilet Roll I shall never know! – excuse the pun.

I want to also pay tribute to all Councillors, new and old.  Members on all sides of the Chamber were a massive help to their local communities and you should be proud of yourself for doing so.  We are not out of the woods yet and the challenges experienced during the pandemic are still with us, and will be for some considerable time, and our communities will need leadership, initiative and compassion to help them through some troubling times ahead.

I want to congratulate our new members and commiserate those that did not win their seats and who are not here with us this evening.  Anyone who stands for their local area has my utmost respect as I know the work that goes into it.  We all do it for the same reason – we want to help improve our local areas and I ask members on all sides to view each other in this light.

We also lost members recently  and I want to pay tribute to Cllr Les Alden, Cllr Pat Beresford and Cllr George Barton who will all be sadly missed.

I am looking forward to hopefully being able to carry out some Civic duties this year and my wife is already lobbying for some new outfits – ouch.  One highlight for myself is that HMS Shoreham will be returning to port this year and I look forward to meeting the Crew.

My main target/goal for the year is to highlight and support Adur’s local businesses.  It was evident during the lockdowns that our smaller businesses, that were able to keep open, really supported our local communities.  In my view we need to return this support and I look forward to shining a light on the fantastic businesses and markets that our District has to offer.

I have chosen Esteem as my charity for the forthcoming year.  They are a young persons charity that deals in support, mentoring and volunteering opportunities for people aged between 16 and 24.  It was vital for me that after the year we have had I chose a charity that assisted with our mental health.  Whilst all age groups have been affected I think that this age group, had I been their age now, must have been particularly hard hit with the restrictions placed on their lives.  I look forward to meeting the team properly and rest assured I will be seeing each of you within the chamber at some point to see how you can assist with the fundraising – you have been warned!

After 8 years as our CEO Mr Alex Bailey will be retiring in June to start a new life in Devon. On behalf of Adur District Council I would like to extend our sincere thanks to Mr Bailey for all that he has done for the residents, businesses and visitors of Adur.

Mr Bailey has brought great energy, intelligence and ambition to the role of CEO and the council has greatly benefited from his hard work and commitment to excellence in public service.

Key markers of Mr Bailey’s approach have been pace, creativity and collaboration and these qualities have helped the Council make great progress in recent years. For example building new homes, improving refuse and recycling rates, keeping our neighbourhoods and parks safer, greener and cleaner, developing the local economy and helping residents find jobs.  We are rightly seen as leaders in areas as diverse as sustainability and digital transformation and as a district council are often described as punching far above our weight.

This work has helped build the authority's resilience and its ability to respond quickly to change.This has helped us in turn to weather the storm of the pandemic and to be there for our residents and businesses when they most needed us.  Our Covid Community Response Platform for example has helped (between the two councils) over 2400 people, recruited, supported over 500 volunteers and helped us target support where it was most needed. This technology has enabled our Economy Team to distribute the covid support grants to local businesses in need, approving 1675 applications and sharing almost 14 million pounds of cash support.  We are rightly proud of the way that under Mr Bailey leadership the organisation was able to adapt and excel in providing our pandemic response.

The creative and proactive work of the council has been recognised nationally and we have recently been nominated for not one but both of the significant Local Government awards for Council of the Year.  We were the only District and Borough Council in the whole of the UK shortlisted in the Council of the Year category for the Municipal Journal (MJ) Awards and the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards.  Whilst we won neither … being shortlisted, and being the only District and Borough Council shortlisted, is a testimony to the work of Alex and his successful leadership as CEO.

Mr Bailey, thank you for all you have done,  especially during these recent difficult and unprecedented times. You will be hugely missed. Have a blessed and wonderful retirement in Devon and our good wishes for all that is to come next. Thank you.

The Chairman used his discretion to allow the Leader of the Council to make a statement regarding the retiring Chief Executive.

The retiring Chief Executive made a statement in relation to their time in the position as head of paid Services