Agenda item

The Town Clerk to be heard.

The Chairman of the Lord Mayor’s Show Limited reported that part of the settlement arrangements entered into with the Corporation around the Show through the Policy and Resources Committee included underwriting the financial risk and it was therefore felt appropriate that the Chairman of Finance or his or her nominee be invited to become Directors of the Show Limited. Whilst this was technically a decision for the Board of the Lord Mayor’s Show Limited, the Court of Aldermen indicated from time to time who it felt it would be appropriate to have on the Board.

The request today was that the Committee recommend to the Board of the Lord Mayor’s Show Limited that the former Chairman of Finance, Jamie Ingham Clark be replaced as a Director by the new Chairman of Finance, Henry Colthurst or his nominee.

The Chairman of the Lord Mayor’s Show Limited went on to report that he had already had numerous discussions around how best to take things forward and commercialise the offering now that the Lord Mayor’s Show had been stabilised. He went on to state that the kind of things looked at as part of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, namely the appointment of external, non-executive directors who could bring particular skills sets such as marketing and commercial merchandising to the Board might be an interesting avenue to explore.

He therefore also sought the support of this Committee for the Board to explore this further. Whilst a majority of Aldermen would be maintained, it was felt that this could be an effective means of diversifying the skills set of the Board of Directors.

Alderman Lyons spoke to fully endorse this recommendation and underlined that he felt that it was now critical to begin to explore new sources of income that could be generated from the Show. With regard to the relationship with the Corporation and their underwriting of any potential losses, Alderman Lyons reported that he had been discussing the possibility of offering three free floats to the Corporation each year which they could use to signpost issues of particular relevance to them in any given year. He reported that Epping Forest would be represented this year as would City Pride. He went on to state that it was also important for each Lord Mayor to make the Show his or her own and to have organisations that were of importance to them participating. Finally, he acknowledge the costs associated with securing and designing floats and the requirements of the BBC for each float to be visually impactful and suggested that identifying new sources of income would be a useful means of supporting these costs.

RESOLVED: - That the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen:

i)                recommend to the Board of the Lord Mayor’s Show Limited that the former Chairman of Finance, Jamie Ingham Clark, be replaced by the new Chairman of Finance, Henry Colthurst or his nominee as a Director;

ii)              support the Board’s desire to explore new means of diversifying the skills sets of its Directors.