Issue - decisions

The Mayor reported that it was her immense pleasure to welcome everyone present to the Extra-Ordinary Council meeting, when Members of the Council would be requested to agree to the Freedom of the Borough being conferred on HMS Mersey which is the highest honour the Council can bestow on any service unit.

The Mayor indicated that the Council had a long and honourableclose association with the Royal Navy, going back to Captain Frederic John Walker and the Battle of the Atlantic and this could be seen in the many naval plaques, ensigns, the Great Chase Signal flags, and other Naval memorabilia in the Council Chamber.

The Council was affiliated with HMS Mersey in 2003 and it was very fitting in the year of the 80^th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic, that the Freedom of the Borough would be conferred on HMS Mersey at this meeting.

The Mayor reported that the Council was very honoured to have the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, Mr Mark Blundell, the High Sheriff of Merseyside, Mrs Lesley Martin-Wright, Peter Dowd MP, the Commanding Officer of HMS Mersey, Lieutenant Commander James Mitchell, and other representatives from HMS Mersey at the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillors Bennett, Bradshaw, Brodie-Browne, Brough, Carlin, D’Albuquerque, Dodd, Evans, Fairclough, Grace, Halsall, Hardman, Hardy, Irving, Jones, John Joseph Kelly, Killen, Lloyd-Johnson, Lunn-Bates, McGinnity, McKee, McKinley, Murphy, Myers, Page, Prendergast, Richards, Robinson, Roche, Roscoe, Sathiy, Shaw, Anne Thompson, Veidman, Sir Ron Watson, Webster and Wilson.