To receive Mayor’s Announcements.

(a)      Councillor McGoldrick

The Mayor welcomed Councillor McGoldrick to her first Council meeting since being elected to represent Norcot Ward on 3 August 2023.

(b)      Changes to Committee & Working Group Memberships

The Mayor reported that the Monitoring Officer had exercised his delegation on the recommendation of the Labour Group Leader to make the following changes to the membership of Committees and Working Groups:

• Councillor Finn McGoldrick had been appointed to the Adult Social Care, Children’s Services and Education Committee and Audit & Governance Committee.  Councillor McGoldrick had replaced Councillor Edwards on the Audit & Governance Committee.
• Councillor Amjad Tarar had been appointed to the Older People’s Working Group and Councillor Paul Gittings had been made the acting Chair of the Working Group.

(c)      Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation Award – Benefits Team

The Mayor reported that the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support Service had entered the ‘Benefits Team of the year’ and ‘most improved team’ categories at the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation Awards.  The Council’s team was highly commended in the most improved team category and won the Benefits Team of the Year in a very competitive field.  The Council added its congratulations to those of the Mayor and Leader to the Team for their outstanding success.

(d)      Mayoral Visit to Düsseldorf

The Mayor passed on greetings from the City of Düsseldorf and the Oberbürgermeister, Stephan Kellar, from his visit to the City in September when it had been hosting the Invictus Games.  During the visit, the Mayor also had the privilege of meeting the founder of the Games, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

(e)      Toys & Teens Appeal

The Mayor promoted the Reading Family Aid Group’s ‘Toys & Teens’ Appeal, which would be launched on 19 October 2023.  Last year, the Appeal had provided over 3,000 gifts to children in the Borough.  The Mayor would be writing to all councillors with further details and encouraged everyone to donate to the Appeal.