Agenda item
Announcements
a) Mayor
b) Leader of the Council
c) Chief Executive
Minutes:
The Mayor made the following announcements:
1) Street Angels
The Mayor announced that he was part of the Accrington Christian Churches Together Street Angels, who patrolled and provided assistance to people on the streets of Accrington Town Centre on Saturday evenings between 10pm and 2am. On Sunday 27th October 2024, he had attended a celebration of the group which had just completed its first full year of operation. Some impressive statistics were provided, as follows:
- Over 500 calming interventions;
- 104 homelessness interventions;
- 25 first aid assistance provided;
- 24 taxis called;
- 74 persons picked up from the ground;
- 100 persons provided with food and drink;
- 50 persons provided with clothing;
- 2 persons escorted home;
- 3 persons taken to Accident & Emergency;
- 5 ambulance calls made;
- 1 person saved from death;
- 1 person saved from severe harm; and
- 50 persons provided with flip-flops and water.
The results were a credit to the Street Angels, which comprised a small group of individuals. The Mayor wished to congratulate them for their achievements. He was very proud of the group and of other volunteers in the community who gave their time freely.
2) Remembrance Sunday
This weekend would see the commemoration of Remembrance Sunday, a time during which communities remembered those who had lost their lives or who had suffered from the horrors of war. War itself was the enemy and this was a time for communities to pray for peace throughout the world. The services held on Remembrance Sunday should remind everybody of the futility of war.
The Leader of the Council then made the following announcements:
3) Local Government Association Corporate Peer Challenge
Last week the Council had welcomed a team of peers from across the local government family, including both elected members and officers. They had conducted a Corporate Peer Challenge, which was a tried and tested process focussed on supporting improvement within individual councils and identifying good practice across the sector.
The team had met over 110 people in 35 meetings across two very full days.
The overall messages were very positive and reflected that there was much that the Council should be proud of. The team had particularly remarked that Hyndburn had a friendly, loyal and dedicated workforce and strong partnerships across the community. The team was impressed by the Council’s ambition, improvements made on systems and information from the Finance team and the Borough’s success in attracting funding.
The team would be producing a report ,which would provide more details on this and include their recommendations. The next step would be for the Council to consider these and produce an action plan, which would be published along with the report.
The peer team would return in about 10 months to see how the Council was progressing with the actions.
The Council was looking forward to building on this valuable feedback to drive some improvements.
Councillor Dad was keen to thank officers, councillors and the Leader of the Opposition for their hard work and valued contributions.
4) Islamophobia Awareness Month
The Leader drew attention to the fact that November was Islamophobia awareness month. This was a time to celebrate the contribution of the Muslim community to the Borough but also to consider the fact that prejudice created barriers and caused harm that affected real people, including exclusion, discrimination and violence. This occurred on a daily basis. Misunderstanding and stereotypes often overshadowed the true meaning of Islam. A large number of hate crimes had been recorded in Lancashire in recent years, including a 25% increase in religious hate crimes. This behaviour threatened society. Differences should be respected and people should engage in open dialogue. It was hoped that Islamophobia Awareness Month would help to promote better understanding.
5) Israel/Gaza Conflict
The Leader had recently signed a letter from the Labour Muslim Network, which they would send to the Prime Minister. Councillor Dad read out the contents of the letter. The letter called for the suspension of arms sales to Israel and highlighted the plight of Palestinian families who had been killed, air strikes on hospitals and the mass displacement of civilians. The Israeli Prime Minister had threatened to seal off food and aid supplies. To date some 31 hospitals and 80% of all schools had been destroyed or damaged in Gaza. The death toll was very high. The letter warned against the UK being complicit in breaches of international law. Accordingly, the call to suspend all arms sales to Israel was reiterated.
There were no announcements from the Chief Executive on this occasion.