Issue - meetings

To receive any announcements that the Chair of the Council may desire to lay before the meeting.

The Chair, Councillor Tom Munro made his announcements as follows:

Councillor Tom Munro confirmed that he had been advised by the Monitoring Officer that there had been a complaint received following the Council meeting in January relating to some comments made twice by him during the meeting.  Councillor Tom Munro confirmed that he had been provided with a transcript of his words which were as follows:

“thank you very much Councillor Moesby for your very detailed report can I assure all officers, elected members or members of the public that there won’t be an examination at the end of the meeting to see if you remember all those figures. No doubt social media will be buzzing already as I have observed members of the public busily working away on their mobile phones but whatever suits your fancy so be it.”

Later in the January meeting the Chair stated:

“thank you very much indeed and finally I do not withdraw my comments earlier about social media we’ve all seen the vast amount of information not necessarily all of it accurate information that has been bandied about on social media locally and it is my hope that moving forward these social media platforms will reflect the truth of the situation across all of our councils both town councils, parish councils and this district council. And with that I thank you all for your attendance, your contributions and wish you a very pleasant rest of the day.”

The Chair added that he was surprised that his remarks had been considered to be condescending by the correspondent and expressed his regret that this interpretation had been made.

Councillor Tom Munro confirmed that following the election of a new Leader he had accepted the offer of a new role as a Portfolio Holder. It was with regret that he would be resigning as Chair of Bolsover District Council after 8 years. He announced that during that time he had raised in excess of £20,000 for a wide variety of charities including: Sight Support Derbyshire, SSAFA,  Ashgate Hospice, the Army Benevolent Fund, Freedom Community Project, the Royal British Legion and this year the Chesterfield Royal Hospital Trust.

A cheque for the sum of £3,500 was presented to the Director of Finance at the Chesterfield Royal Hospital Trust.

Councillor Tom Munro expressed this thanks to the Vice Chair Councillor Rita Turner for her loyalty and support, his wife and the Governance team for supporting and organising events. In addition, thanks to Councillors Steve Fritchley and Duncan McGregor for their support over the years. Thank you to elected Members and officers as well and formally resigned as Chair.

Councillor Jane Yates expressed the appreciation of Council for the work carried out by Councillor Tom Munro.  Councillor Tom Munro and Mrs Munro were then presented with flowers and a gift.