The Chairman will mention a range of recent items of news which may be of interest to Members
Minutes:
County Councillors Barrie Mycock and Peter Beresford and Alderman Herbert Derrick Brookes
The Council were informed of the recent death of County Councillors Barrie Mycock and Peter Beresford and Alderman Herbert Derrick Brookes.
Mr. Mycock had represented the Churnet Valley County Electoral Division on the County Council since his appointment to the Council in June 2001. He had served on the former Social Services Scrutiny Committee and Regulatory and Audit Committee and was also a member of the Regulatory Committee, Partnership Scrutiny and Performance Panel, Staffordshire Health Scrutiny Committee, Social Care Scrutiny Committee, Regeneration and Infrastructure Scrutiny Committee and Audit Committee. Mr Mycock had also represented the County Council on the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Fire & Rescue Authority
Mr Beresford had represented the Burton Town County Electoral Division on the County Council since his appointment to the Council in 2005. He served on the Communities Scrutiny Committee, Social Care Scrutiny Committee and also the former Children and Young People Scrutiny and Performance Panel. He had also served on the County Council’s Cabinet as the Lead Member for Children and Young People and as a representative of the County Council on the Staffordshire Police Authority.
Mr Brookes represented the former Burntwood Chase (Lichfield) County Electoral Division on the County Council between 1989 and 1999. He had served on the Education, Highways, Libraries, Arts and Archives, Policy and Resources and Police Committees. He was also Chairman of the Libraries, Arts and Archives Committee between 1992 and 1997, and was Chairman of the Cultural and Recreational Services Group Committee between 1996 and his resignation from the County Council in 1999.
Mr Brookes was made an Honorary Alderman of the Council in 1999.
Members paid tribute to the contribution made by Messrs. Beresford, Mycock and Brookes, and stood in silence in their memory.
Renaissance Best of the West Awards 2011
Members extended their congratulations to the Council's Heritage and Arts Service who had won two prizes in the Renaissance Best of the West Awards 2011.
A project run jointly by the heritage and arts service and the county council's prison library service won first prize in the Best Education Project category. The services worked together to deliver learning experience to young offenders in Staffordshire. It involved the county council's mobile museum visiting young offenders' institutions, benefiting 217 young people and 69 staff.
In the Best Exhibition category, Staffordshire won top prize for A Sense of Place at the Shire Hall Gallery. The exhibition, staged last summer, celebrated the diversity of Staffordshire. Local artists worked with school and college students and communities to produce textile postcards, photography, drawing, film and a sound installation. The exhibition attracted over 14,000 visitors.
A Young Curators Project, where four schools worked with local museums to develop touring displays, was runner up in the Best Exhibition on a Shoestring category. The displays created were exhibited at the schools, museums and libraries across Staffordshire.
Local Government Chronicle Awards 2011 – Innovation Award
Members were informed that the County Council had recently won the Innovation Award at the Local Government Chronicle Awards 2011 for the W2R project. The aim of the Council’s W2R initiative was to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, as well as reducing waste management costs. The Council had decided to acquire a site suitable for a major ’energy from waste’ facility and then get planning permission for a plant. This ‘de-risked’ the project for the contractor and thus saved two years in development time. Consequently, the new facility – which would also serve neighbouring authorities at Warwickshire, Walsall and Sandwell – would save Staffordshire £250m, while £400m would be saved in the West Midlands region as a whole.
ROSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards
Members were informed that the County Council’s cleaning services unit had recently achieved the coveted 'Gold Medal' in the Occupational Health and Safety Awards. The prestigious prize was only presented to teams that had won the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents' (RoSPA) gold award for seven consecutive years.
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service Partnership Achievement Award
Members noted that the Council’s adult social care teams had been recognised by Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service for working in partnership to reduce the risk of fire in the homes of older people and adults with disabilities. John Goosey, Service Delivery Lead - Older Peoples Programme, had won the Partnership Achievement Award for the development of the Olive Branch System and for his contribution to the development of a National Fire Service Older Peoples Strategy.
Members’ Long Service Award
County Councillor Philip Atkins was presented with a Long Service Award in recognition of his 24 years service to the County Council. Mr Atkins was first elected to the County Council on 7 May 1987 and had represented the Uttoxeter Rural County Electoral Division since that date. He also became Leader of the Council in 2009.
Stoke City Football Club
The Chairman informed the Council that Mrs. Bayliss, the former Chairman, had written to the Chairman of Stoke City Football Club and the Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent City Council to congratulate the Football Club on their historic FA Cup final and to wish them success in their match against Manchester City FC.