To receive Mayor’s Announcements.

(a)      Order of Business

The Mayor used her discretion under Council Procedure Rule 5(3)(a) to change the order of business and took Agenda item 10, ‘Council Response to the Ukraine Crisis’, as Agenda item 6A, immediately after Agenda item 6, ‘Questions from Councillors’.

(b)      Reading’s response to the invasion of Ukraine and Minute’s Silence

The Mayor thanked everyone who had donated to the various appeals being run by those in Reading whether in kind or financially, including her appeal to raise funds for Reading Ukrainian Community Centre.  She expressed the Council’s distress at the devastation caused by the war in Ukraine and the victims who had become refugees, internally displaced, or trapped in cities like Mariupol, and those who had been injured and killed.  The Mayor invited Councillors and other attendees at the meeting to join her in a minute’s silence as a mark of respect.

(c)      Retiring Councillors

As this was the last meeting prior to the Council elections on 5^th May 2022, the Mayor invited the Group Leaders to pay tribute to Councillors who would not be standing for re-election.  Councillor Brock spoke about Councillor David Absolom, Debs Absolom, James, Pearce, D Singh, Sokale and R Williams; Councillor Mitchell spoke about Councillors Manghnani, Skeats and Stanford-Beale; and Councillor O’Connell spoke about Councillor Duveen.  Additionally, Councillor Hacker spoke about Councillor Maskell.  The Mayor added her thanks to Councillor Sokale for the support she had given as her Deputy Mayor since November 2021.