Agenda and minutes

Full Council to elect the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for the Council Year 2023/24.

The Mayor to make a declaration of acceptance of office.

It was then moved by Cllr. North and seconded by Cllr. Areti that Cllr. Preety Hudd be elected Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for the ensuing year.

         Cllrs. North and Areti spoke in support of Cllr. Hudd.

         The motion was put to the vote and the Mayor, Cllr. Lindsay declared that the vote was in favour of Cllr. Hudd.

The elected Mayor made and subscribed the statutory declaration of acceptance of Office and was invested with the Chain and Badge of Office.

The Mayor, Cllr. Hudd, in the chair.

         The Mayor gave a short speech of thanks to Full Council and announced that her husband, Mr David Hudd, had agreed to serve as her Consort.

(Pursuant to paragraph 5 of the Second Schedule of the Local Government Act,1972 the Mayor may appoint a Councillor to be Deputy Mayor).

The Mayor appointed Cllr. Dori Schmetterling as her Deputy Mayor.

         Cllr. Schmetterling addressed the Council.

The Mayor appointed the Reverend Emma Dinwiddy Smith as her Chaplain.

A vote of thanks in the retiring Mayor and Deputy Mayor was moved by Cllr. Gardner and seconded by Cllr. Hammond. Cllrs Bakhtiar and Isse spoke.

Council RESOLVED:

That the Council give its thanks to Cllr. David Lindsay and Cllr. Janet Evans for the year they served as the Royal Borough’s Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively.

Cllr. Lindsay and Evans responded.

The minutes of the meeting of Full Council held on 26 April 2023 are submitted for confirmation.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2023 were confirmed as a correct record and were signed by the Mayor.

No declarations of interest were made.

         The Mayor had no communications for the meeting.

(i)       Apologies for Absence

(ii)     Other communications

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Adam, Benton, Jedut, Marshall, McVeigh, Wade, and Weale.

The Mayor invited the Leader of the Council to address the meeting. The Leader then rose to speak:

‘If I may, I’d like to start by addressing the now former Mayor. David, where do I start?

What a year you’ve had, from jubilees, to the death of the Queen, to the coronation of the King. At the same time, I know local organisations, charities, and communities have benefitted from your programme of support and you have been such a visible presence across the whole borough.

You helped us to mark the fifth anniversary of the Grenfell Tragedy, leading staff through an incredibly moving and poignant moment.

You have put the community before politics, marking Pride, supporting Black History Month and enjoying our Carnival.

Together, with Janet, I think you have done a fantastic job. A resident from North Kensington, representing the whole borough. Thank you.

I have no doubt that our next Mayor will follow in your footsteps, and take us through another important year.

And welcome to your new role Madam Mayor, we wish you luck for the months ahead.

Madam Mayor, In the same spirit, I welcome the new leader of the opposition. We may well be returning to a more collegiate relationship, similar in many ways to Cllr Robert Atkinson and his efforts to work with me and my colleagues in 2017. Local Government tends to work more effectively when political interests are left outside and we focus on the local and the real.

However, a word of caution. I read the ‘MyLondon’ report on our new opposition leader with a great deal of interest. And despite the fact that I am a naturally pro-business Conservative I have to say that I hope the future success he has so eloquently and ambitiously charted out for his own business doesn’t come too soon, at the cost of his new role.

Residents would no doubt like to see some stability in the benches opposite, I certainly do: it’s a case of fourth time lucky in my time as leader of the Council.

It might, however, be beneficial for the Labour benches to start thinking about their next leader, just in case, just in case we lose the person in the hot seat to his own hot sauce.

Madam Mayor, although our politics don’t often align. For example, we don’t support the unnecessary strike action taking place in the borough this week, whereas others do. And I note a policy of 70% affordable housing proposed opposite. which is a policy for no housing at all.

Despite these things, we can find common ground. We have already set out our plans for a borough that is greener, safer, fairer. All commitments I am sure the Labour party would support as we all want to make this borough a better place.

And we have started work on delivering this plan at pace. Madam Mayor.

I am delighted to say I was voted in again as a councillor and leader  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Appendix B to follow.

Cllrs. Thalassites, Lari, and Verboven moved the appointments standing their names.

         RESOLVED:

         That the appointments be agreed.

The reception of the report was moved by Cllr. Campbell and seconded by Cllr. Taylor-Smith.

RESOLVED:

That the amended Schedule of Council Meetings 2023/24 be agreed.

Report to follow.

Cllr. Thalassites and Lari moved the appointments standing their names.

RESOLVED:

That the appointments be agreed.

[Each written report on the public part of the Agenda as detailed above:

(i)    was made available for public inspection from the date of the Agenda;

(ii)   incorporates a list of the background papers which (i) disclose any facts or matters on which that report, or any important part of it, is based; and (ii) have been relied upon to a material extent in preparing it. (Relevant documents which contain confidential or exempt information are not listed.); and

(iii)   may, with the consent of the Mayor and subject to specified reasons, be supported at the meeting by way of oral statement or further written report in the event of special circumstances arising after the despatch of the Agenda.]

Exclusion of the Press and Public

There are no matters scheduled to be discussed at this meeting that would appear to disclose confidential or exempt information under the provisions Schedule 12A of the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985.

Should any such matters arise during the course of discussion of the above items or should the Mayor agree to discuss any other such matters on the grounds of urgency, the Council will wish to resolve to exclude the press and public by virtue of the private nature of the business to be transacted.  

  There were no other items.