Agenda item - Election of the Mayor of Brighton and Hove for the Municipal Year 2018/19

The Mayor will seek nominations for the new Mayor for the 2018/19 Municipal Year.

4.1            The Mayor invited nominations for the position of Mayor of Brighton & Hove for the municipal year 2018/19.

4.2            Councillor Dee Simson was proposed by Councillor Bell and seconded by Councillor Janio.

4.3            Councillors Yates and Mac Cafferty supported the nomination of Councillor Simson as Mayor for 2018/19 on behalf of the Labour & Co-operative and Green Groups respectively.

4.4            The Mayor declared that, there being no other nominations, Councillor Dee Simson be duly elected Mayor of Brighton & Hove for the forthcoming municipal year. 

4.5            The motion was agreed.

4.6            The Mayor then adjourned the meeting at 4.55pm in order for Councillor Simson as the incoming Mayor to be robed and to take the Chair for the meeting.

4.7            Councillor Simson reconvened the meeting at 5.10pm and then made and signed her Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

Councillor Simson in the Chair

4.8            Deputy Lieutenant, High Sheriff, Councillors, ladies and gentlemen, special guests.  Who would have thought that I'd be sitting here one day with my name on a board in the Council Chamber amongst all these important and well known people whose names you can see and who've made Brighton and Hove the fabulous city it is today. Thank you so much to the Council for appointing me and special thanks to Cllrs. Bell, Janio, Yates and Mac Cafferty for your kind words today.

4.9            I've been told to be brief so I'm not going to say too much, just explain what I'm hoping to do during my year as Mayor but before I do I want to say some special thankyou’s.

4.10         Firstly to my family - I'm very happy that my husband Paul has agreed to be my Consort during my Mayoral year so I'd like to thank him and ask him to come forward to be presented with the badge of office.  Thanks also to my three beautiful daughters, Sam, Charley and Bobby. Thank you all so much for supporting me over the past 20 years when I’ve often been out from morning to night.  And thank you for my 5 adorable grandchildren Olivia, Brandon, Rafe, Minnie and Rex who are here today.  If ever anyone asks them where Nanny is, the response will always be - 'in a meeting!   Thank you also to my other family members and friends who've come along today to support me.   Welcome to this wonderful building. 

4.11         There's one other person I'd like to say a special thank you to who can't actually be here today and that's ex councillor Pamela Stiles.  It was Pamela who 20 years ago talked me into becoming a councillor.  It was something I'd never considered and didn't feel I had the capability of, but she insisted and insisted and I'm so glad that she did so thank you Pamela.

4.12         I’m very pleased to say that Reverend Helen Rose from my own Parish in Woodingdean has agreed to be my Chaplain for the mayoral year.  Thank you Helen and I hope you will find it to be an engaging experience.

4.13         I've given a lot of thought about what I want to do in my Mayoral year and a lot of thought as to what charities I want as my Mayoral Charities.  I love Brighton and Hove & Portslade where one of my daughters actually lives.  I've lived here all my life and I want to do everything I can to promote the city during my year.  It's such a fun place to be and I want everybody else to enjoy the time they spend here.

4.14         Whether it's living, working or just visiting.  I want visitors to come and see what a great place it is and all the exciting things on offer, so they come back over and over again and tell their friends to visit as well.  I want to support business and the economic development of the city by welcoming conferences and delegations and showing them what an amazing place it is to do business with.

4.15         Brighton & Hove has a long and well established history of being a city that is open to visitors and investors alike.  As a city we are looking to build on that to develop new ties overseas and attract investment into the city while helping our businesses that are here to export to new markets.  I’ll therefore be working during my time as Mayor to promote the city where I can; building on the fact the role of Mayor is internationally recognisable.  In doing this I hope to contribute to the work the council is doing to strengthen the economy of the city and attract new investment, such as looking to set up a Trade and Inward Investment Team.

4.16         When I was thinking about all this my thoughts kept coming back to the seafront.  We have an amazing resource in the seafront.  If you go anywhere in the world and mention you're from Brighton, they immediately say '"oh yes by the sea".  I'm hoping to use this to my charities advantage by having several of my fundraising events there.  We've got so many places that can offer good facilities from the casino in the marina,  Volks railway, and the Palace Pier.  There's all the hotels and businesses along on the seafront, the i360, the Bandstand and along to the King Alfred and Hove Lagoon. I'm sure there are plenty of things that we can do along that stretch to raise lots of money - so if anyone here has any contacts please let me know.

4.17         Moving onto my Charities:

·           Firstly I wanted a charity that touches almost everyone in the city at one time or another through family members, friends or neighbours, so decided on the Martlets.  he Martlets is an amazing charity that needs to raise substantial amounts every year and I'll be really happy to support them. 

·           My second theme was children.  As I said, I've got five grandchildren at the moment and a 6th on the way, so I wanted to support a children's charity.  I decided on Rockinghorse which is actually a small charity that has to work hard to raise funds for all sorts of equipment and other things needed at the Royal Alex hospital. 

·           As you all know, we have a big problem in the city with homelessness so I really felt it was right to choose a homeless charity. The charity I decided on is doing an amazing amount of "thinking outside of the box" providing mobile washing facilities and other innovative services to our street sleepers. That is Off the Fence.

·           My final charity is one that is very close to my daughter Sam’s heart. She does a lot of work with adults with learning disabilities and I wanted to support her in that area of work so I've chosen Grace Eyre Foundation.

4.18         I've done things a bit differently this year in that instead of thinking about pound notes, I've asked them all for a wish list so we know exactly what we're working towards.  I think that'll help us when we're asking people to attend events, buy raffle tickets and when we're doing bucket collections.  Instead of just asking people to throw money in the bucket for charity we can explain exactly what we are raising money to buy.  This may be a ventilator for the Royal Alex or 100 sleeping bags for the homeless.  At the end of my year I'm hoping to share with you a long list of what we've managed to buy.

4.19         We've already had a couple of get-togethers of the charities and want to try some different things this year.  We're in the process of organising the Mayor’s Variety Show thanks to Jo Jamieson and my daughter Sam.  The venue’s booked for Saturday 6th October so please put this date in your diary.  There are going to be two great performances with a matinee and evening show.   We're also hoping to organise a grand ball and a Caribbean evening amongst many other things.  I hope many of you will be able to come along to support them.

4.20         As well as these four charities I’m hoping to support many other charities, clubs & associations in the City by being invited to attend events that raise their profile and increase their fundraising.

4.21         When you got your invitations to my reception today I'm sure many of you were wondering why we weren't going to the Pavilion, which is traditional, but as I've already said I wanted to start my year by having fun, while promoting the seafront.  So I thought it would be really good to have a change and go down to the beach and so that's where we're going.  Down to Carousels and with fish, chips and donuts instead of canape.  I really do hope you enjoy it.  It's going to be a lovely evening.  We can stay as long as we want and you can ride the Carousel as many times as you want.

4.22         In closing, I want to extend my personal congratulations to Councillor Alex Phillips, assuming we all agree shortly, whom I know will make an excellent Deputy Mayor and look forward to working with her.  I also want to offer my thanks to Cllr Mo Marsh who has selflessly allowed me to attend many events during her Mayoral year so I have some idea about what lies ahead.

4.23         I’m really looking forward to starting my mayoral engagements and in the first two weeks will be attending amongst others:

·           a steel erection ceremony at West Blatchington Primary and Nursery School

·           The  80 years’ celebration of Preston Circus Fire Station, and

·           The launch of Brighton & Hove new Community Kitchen at Community Base.

4.24         These wonderful and varied events reflect the diversity of our inclusive and welcoming city and I hope will be the perfect start to my special year ahead.

4.25         Thank you all once again. Please do enjoy the rest of the day with family, friends and colleagues.  It's going to be a nice evening and where better to spend it than on Brighton Beach.