(a)        To receive announcements from the Lord Mayor, Chief Executive, Service Director for Finance or Head of Legal Services;

(b)        To receive announcements from the Leader, Cabinet Members or Committee Chairs.

The Lord Mayor made the following announcements:

a)     One minute’s silence was requested and held for the passing of Freeman David Stark, a well-respected local politician with a long history of serving his community over a period of five decades;

b)    A moments silence was called for Holocaust Memorial Day;

c)     Long service awards were presented, and congratulations issued to Councillor Evans OBE (in his 36^th year of service) and Councillor Nicholson (in his 29^th year). 

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) made the following announcements: 

d)    There had been a large amount of success in the procurement of funding for the city. This included:

                         i.         £26m from the National Lottery Horizons National Marine Park submission; 

                       ii.         £19.9 Million for the City’s Levelling Up Round 2 bid; 

                      iii.         £25m Freeport seed capital Grant;

                      iv.         £7.5m for business support from Innovate UK for the UK’s Maritime and Marine Launchpad; 

e)     £10.9m for the creative growth programme; 

f)      An “investment pipeline” of around £1 billion had been created; 

g)     The Plymouth and South Devon Freeport would be securing Sherford Employment land. The Freeport would be funding South Hams to purchase this land from the Housing Consortium and the Council would be looking to work closely with South hams to bring forward various employment schemes; 

h)    Langage Green Hydrogen Plant – More than £20m in funding for a green hydrogen hub had been secured by Carlton Power as part of the UK’s round one hydrogen allocation round for the Langage Green Hydrogen Plant and it planned to have the plant operational by 2026;

i)      The £26m improvement programme at Millbay Docks part funded by the Freeport had started; 

j)      £700,000 of the Shared Prosperity Fund had been dispersed to citizens of the city to support green skills, to encourage pathways to employment and to improve digital inclusion.  

Councillor Haydon (Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Libraries, Cemeteries & Crematoria) made the following announcements;

k)     Congratulated Jon Kelly & Mel Walker from the Trading-Standards team, who had won the Outstanding Project Award for the Council’s Illicit Tobacco work at the Trading Standards South West awards ceremony. 

Councillor Laing (Deputy Leader of the Council & Cabinet Member for Children's Social Care, Culture, Events and Communications) made the following announcements:

l)      Passed on thanks to all contributors of “make Christmas 2023 extra special for care-experienced young people”- a programme supporting young carers in the community over Christmas.  

Councillor Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) made the following announcements: 

m)   The incumbent national government had issued a statement on vaping which echoed the current concerns of the Council and she gave her thanks to all members of the Council who had worked towards the current vaping targets.