Agenda item
Announcements
a) Mayor
b) Acting Leader of the Council
c) Chief Executive
Minutes:
(a) Welcome
The Mayor welcomed all of the newly elected Members to the Council and wished them well throughout their time in office.
(a) Congratulations to the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor
The Acting Leader of the Council, Marlene Howarth, congratulated Councillor Hurn on his appointment as Mayor and Councillor Plummer as Deputy Mayor and wished them well for the year ahead. She hoped that they would enjoy the role immensely. Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP added his congratulations to Councillor Hurn and Mrs Hurn.
(b) Votes of Thanks
The Acting Leader of the Council thanked the retiring Mayor, Councillor Abdul Khan, for his excellent service over the past year. She hoped that he had thoroughly enjoyed the role and would similarly enjoy his retirement from such a busy schedule. Councillor Dad also spoke to praise Councillor Khan, who had been a great ambassador for the Borough. Councillor Dad recalled the sense of pride felt during Councillor Khan’s visit to his native Kashmir, in Pakistan.
Councillor Clegg gave his apologies at this point due to a personal appointment and left the meeting.
(c) Coronation Plaques
The Acting Leader of the Council indicted that the Council had purchased some commemorative plaques for the coronation of King Charles III, to be distributed to local schools. Councillors were invited arrange for their distribution and presentation to schools in their wards. The plaques were available for collection on the table outside of the Council Chamber.
(d) Mercer Hall
The Acting Leader of the Council reported that there had been a large water leak at Mercer Hall, which had caused an unplanned closure. The Chief Executive of Hyndburn Leisure had updated her today, as follows:
Essentially, a major water leak to the cold-water tank and a burst pipe to the mains water supply had been identified on Monday afternoon at Mercer Hall Leisure Centre. The leak had been stopped temporarily.
There had been concerns that the incident might have affected the structural integrity of the building, as the cellar was full of water. Accordingly, the building had been closed since Monday evening, in light of the lack of running water and potential structural movement.
A member of the Hyndburn Leisure team had met on site with a structural engineer on Tuesday who had confirmed that everything was structurally fine.
Before any firm costings for repairs could be obtained an inspection of the undercroft area for any asbestos-containing materials following the pipe burst was required. An inspection had taken place this morning and samples had been taken from around the affected area. The outcome of that survey was awaited.
Social Media posts would continue to be added to Hyndburn Leisure’s social media pages and the team had been contacting customers individually by phone to notify them of the closure. There were currently 251 members at Mercer Hall.
Yesterday, the team had contacted every Mercer Hall member for whom Hyndburn Leisure held an email address (216 people) and had made courtesy calls to other customers - they had spoken to 37 Feelgood members to inform them about the unplanned closure. Hyndburn leisure would continue to make calls during the week and would keep customers and stakeholders informed as more information became available.