Prior to the commencement of the meeting, the Town Clerk reported that apologies for absence had been received from Cllr Chard, Cllr Chambers, Cllr Steele, Cllr Rippon-Swaine and Cllr Urwin.

Declarations of Interest

Prior to the commencement of the meeting, no members gave notice that they would need to declare any interests at the meeting.

Present:

Cllr N R G Clarke
Cllr D R Cole
Cllr L C Ford
Cllr J D Heron
Cllr O’Reilly
Cllr B H Terry
Cllr J Terry
Cllr A C Wiseman
Cllr B Woodifield

In Attendance:

T R Simpson, Town Clerk
C L Perrens, Meetings Administrator
C Smith, Office Manager

C/4908 Election of Town Mayor

Cllr Ford was nominated for Town Mayor, proposed by Cllr Cole and seconded by Cllr Clarke.
There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED: That Cllr Ford be elected as Town Mayor for the ensuing year.

Cllr Terry congratulated Cllr Ford on being the first lady Town Mayor of Ringwood. Cllr Ford took the chair for the remainder of the meeting.

C/4909 Declaration of Acceptance of Office by Town Mayor

Cllr Ford read and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office, witnessed by the Town Clerk, and thanked all the councillors for this honour. She also paid tribute to the marvellous work contributed by the previous Mayor, Cllr Brian Terry, and his wife Cllr Jacqui Terry, over the past two years, describing them as gracious ambassadors for Ringwood. She welcomed all public and press to the meeting and councillors from New Milton Town Council.

C/4910 Election of Deputy Town Mayor

Cllr B H Terry was nominated for Deputy Town Mayor, proposed by Cllr Cole and seconded by Cllr O’Reilly. There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED: That Cllr B H Terry be elected as Deputy Town Mayor for the ensuing year.

C/4911 Declaration of Acceptance of Office by Deputy Town Mayor

Cllr B H Terry read and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office, witnessed by the Town Clerk.

C/4912 Representatives on Outside Bodies

Members noted that representatives had been appointed to outside bodies for four years in 2007 and would continue in office unless they resigned. All members indicated their willingness to continue with their present roles. There was a vacancy on the Ringwood Twinning Association, for which Cllr O’Reilly volunteered.

Cllr Urwin had resigned from Forest Forge Theatre Company in March, and Cllr Clarke was interested in replacing her, commenting that he was impressed by the artistic achievements of Forest Forge and also its financial prudence.

RESOLVED:
1) That Cllr O’Reilly be appointed to the Ringwood Twinning Association;
2) That Cllr Clarke be appointed to replace Cllr Urwin on the Forest Forge Theatre Company; and
3) That the updated list of representatives on outside bodies be as shown at Annex ‘A’

C/4913 Membership of Committees

Members considered the appointment of members to standing committees.

Standing Orders provide for Councillors to be appointed for a four year period (2007 to 2011) subject to amendments being possible at each Annual Meeting. Initially the Council restricted membership of committees to eight, including the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. However, following a previous casual vacancy, membership of the Planning, Town & Environment Committee was increased to nine.

No members wished to relinquish membership of the Planning, Town and Environment Committee or the Recreation, Leisure and Open Spaces Committee.
.
RESOLVED: That there be no change to membership of committees.

C/4914 Minutes of Previous Meeting

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Meeting held on 29th April 2009, having been circulated, be approved and signed as a correct record.

C/4915 Representations from Members of the Public

There were none.

C/4916 Communications to be Received

There were none.

C/4917 Questions of the Town Mayor

There were none.

C/4918 Reports from County and District Councillors

Members received District Councillor Treleaven’s written report (Annex ‘B’)

C/4919 Adjournment of Meeting

At 8.10pm it was

RESOLVED: to adjourn the meeting until the end of the individual committee meetings.

On resumption of the meeting at 8.25pm:

C/4920 Appointment of Members to the Policy & Finance Committee

Meetings of the Planning, Town & Environment Committee and the Recreation, Leisure & Open Spaces Committee had been held during the adjournment.

At the Recreation, Leisure & Open Spaces Committee meeting, Cllr B Terry had been elected Chairman, replacing Cllr Chard, following a vote by secret ballot. Cllr Chard was unanimously elected Vice Chairman, replacing Cllr Chambers.

The Chairman and Vice Chairman of Planning, Town & Environment Committee had been re-elected for a further year.

The Chairmen of both Committees were automatically appointed to the Policy & Finance Committee.

No member wished to relinquish membership of the Policy & Finance Committee.

RESOLVED: That the updated list of membership of committees be noted (Annex ‘C’)

C/4921 Forthcoming Meetings

The Town Mayor declared the meeting closed at 8.45pm.

RECEIVED AND ADOPTED
27th May 2009

TOWN MAYOR    COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN