Agenda item

The Chairman of the Livery Committee to be heard.

The Chairman welcomed the Chairman of the Livery Committee, Philip Woodhouse to the meeting.

Mr Woodhouse spoke on the wider work undertaken in recent years to help lift the profile of the Livery Committee and improve communications both pan-Livery and with the City of London Corporation. He went on to speak of the opportunity which now arose to extend the liaison scheme operated by the Livery Committee to the Court of Aldermen. He underlined that he was not keen on being overly prescriptive in terms of the way in which and how often individual Aldermen and Livery Company Clerks might want to engage. He flagged that this was still very much a work in progress and opened up the proposal for wider discussion.

Alderman Gowman, who had also been involved in discussions on this proposal to date as Chair of the Magistracy and Livery Sub-Committee stated that this was a very valued scheme but had perhaps not been as successful as initially hoped. She was therefore very supportive of the idea of the Court of Aldermen now getting behind this as an effective means of engaging with the City’s various Liveries and helping to make this as big a success as possible.

Another Alderman spoke in support of the proposal and questioned to what extent this Committee might act as a ‘matchmaker’ for those Liveries currently without an Alderman. The Chairman of the Livery Committee stated that he would welcome this role.

Other Aldermen also spoke in support of the proposal. All were encouraged to inform the Town Clerk of any amendments or additions to their list of Liveries presented today. The Deputy Chairman stated that, with this agreement in principle, the proposal would now be worked up in greater detail and would come back to this Committee at its next meeting.

An Alderman requested that details of sponsoring Aldermen of Livery Companies also be added to the list circulated going forward and that this be shared with the Committee going forward.

The Chairman queried whether Aldermen might be best assigned to those Livery Companies situated in their Wards where some links might already have been established.

Resolved – That the proposal be supported in principle with the Scheme now worked up in more detail and brought back to the next meeting of this Committee.