Councillor Chris Smyth appointed as Council Chairman

2nd June 2020

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Cllr Smyth   Official

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) virtually on Monday 1 June 2020 with Ulster Unionist Party Councillor Chris Smyth nominated as Council Chairman for the incoming year and SDLP Councillor John Coyle nominated as Council Vice-Chairman.

Accepting the role of Chairman of the Council, Councillor Smyth said:

“I would first of all like to express my thanks to my party colleagues in the Ulster Unionist Party for nominating me to the position of Chairman of the Council. It is a great honour for me to assume the role and I thank them for giving me the opportunity to lead the Council at this time.

As both Councillor Currie and Councillor Armstrong alluded to in their outgoing addresses, these are challenging and unprecedented times and the  role of the Chair will certainly be a little different than my predecessors.

I would like to thank the huge number of volunteers and frontline services workers in all sectors who have done so much to keep our communities going in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Your efforts have been truly inspirational.

One of my key themes during my term will be to highlight the Council’s well being initiatives and to focus on mental health issues. As a Psychology lecturer, I am all to aware that the issues we face in Northern Ireland around mental health have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. I believe that local government has a role to play in addressing this issue.

I look forward to working with you all over the next year.”

 

The following Councillors were nominated as Chairperson of the Council’s Standing Committees for 2020/21:

Environmental Services
Councillor Garbhan McPhillips

Regeneration & Community
Councillor Tommy Maguire

Policy & Resources
Councillor Stephen McCann

Planning
Councillor Robert Irvine

Brexit
Councillor Paul Blake

All 40 Councillors are members of each of these Committees, with the exception of the Planning Committee which has a membership of 13 Councillors.

The members of the Planning Committee were nominated as follows:

Councillor Irvine (Planning Committee Chair) and Councillors Campbell; Coyle; Deehan; Donnelly; Feely; Garrity; Maguire; O’Reilly; Rainey; Robinson, Smith; and Thompson.

The first full Council meeting of the 2020 – 2021 Council term will take place virtually tonight (Tuesday 2 June 2020) at 7pm.

Chairman, Councillor Chris Smyth
Chairman, Councillor Chris Smyth
Vice Chairman, John Coyle
Vice Chairman, John Coyle