Annual Council and Mayor Making today
An important day for Bury today - it’s “Annual Council,” where Councillors vote to see who will form the Council’s Executive (i.e. who will run the Council) for the coming year. Since the Conservatives won a small overall majority in the election, they have the votes to ensure that they run the Council, and I’m sure their lady members will be suitably dressed to mark the occasion, before heading off to Ascot or whatever is the correct thing to do with what they’ve got on their heads.
There will also be a debate on proposed changes to the Council’s constitution, particularly around the rights of Members to ask questions. I suspect there may be some objections to the proposals to limit the time given to questions in meetings, so there may well be some fiery debate.
The Annual Council meeting is actually split in two, with one half dedicated to business (the Executive positions etc), and the other half given over to the ceremony of electing a new Mayor. The Mayor for the 2007-8 municipal year is Cllr Dr Farook Choudhry, and his term of office expires today. The presumptive new Mayor is Cllr Peter Ashworth, with whom I served on the Resource and Performance Scrutiny Commission and the Council’s Youth Cabinet. He will be elected and sworn in this afternoon as well, and I send him my congratulations and wish him all the best for the year ahead as the Borough’s Mayor.
So, in essence, that’s what I’ll be doing today.
Rick
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