Agenda and minutes

Urgency Committee - Friday 11 October 2019 10.30 am

Venue: Bromley Civic Centre

Contact: Graham Walton 020 8461 7743

Items
No.	Item
1.	APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRMAN Minutes: Councillor Colin Smith was appointed Chairman.
2.	APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Simon Fawthrop and Angela Wilkins - who was replaced by Councillor Ian Dunn.
3.	DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Minutes: Councillor Nicholas Bennett declared an interest as he would be part of the proposed visit.
4.	MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 8TH AUGUST 2016 PDF 69 KB Minutes: RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 8^th August 2019 be confirmed.
5.	MAYORAL VISIT PDF 58 KB View the background to item 5. The Chairman to move that the report be considered as a matter of urgency in view of the need to confirm the arrangements for the proposed visit. Minutes: Report CSD19153 The Mayor, Deputy Mayor and two Portfolio Holders have been invited to participate in a visit to China at the end of October focussing on Chinese schools. The party would also be visiting local authorities and looking at engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) It was customary for a mayoral attendant to accompany the Mayor on official duties. The Mayor would be wearing his chains of office, and it was essential that an attendant was on hand to safeguard the chains and also to ensure that protocol was observed and to generally assist the party. As there was no delegated authority for officers to travel abroad on Council business, except within the European Union, an urgent member decision was sought to enable a mayoral attendant to accompany the party. Total cost to the Council to cover extension of insurance to cover the chains (£336), and additional travel insurance (£224), was £560. There were no additional staff salary costs as the initial report had indicated. The visit had been arranged by Jiangsu Education Services for International Exchange (JESIE) together with the Townley Grammar Schools federation, and all other costs would be paid by the hosts. The Committee’s decision would be reported to the next full Council meeting as required in the Council Constitution. A Member also requested a report on the visit itself to a future Council meeting. RESOLVED that authority be granted for a mayoral attendant to assist the Mayor and the rest of the delegation during the visit to China in October 2019. (The decision was unanimous, save that Councillor Nicholas Bennett abstained as he would be taking part in the visit - recorded as his request.)