Council is recommended to agree to present former Councillor Janice Howard with a certificate conferring on them the title of Honorary Alderwoman duly affixed with the common seal of the Council.

The motion to be moved and seconded is:

“That former Councillor Janice Howard is conferred with the title of Honorary Alderwoman of the London Borough of Merton in recognition of her loyal and distinguished service to the Council over many years.”

Note by Chief Executive: Section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972 requires a resolution conferring the title of Honorary Alderman/woman to be passed by not less than two thirds of the Members voting thereon

The Mayor invited Councillor Macauley to move and Councillor Foley to second the motion.

Councillor Macauley:

Thank you Madam Mayor. Deputy Lieutenant, Madam Mayor, distinguished guests, I am absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to propose the motion that former Councillor Janice Howard is conferred with the title of Honorary Alderwoman of the London Borough of Merton in recognition of her loyal, distinguished and exceptional service to the Council for many years.

Janice was first elected as a Wimbledon Park Councillor in May 2010 and was not re-elected in May 2022 after 12 years of active service as a Councillor. During her time as a Councillor in the Conservative group she was shadow spokesperson for environment, transport and parking as well as culture and leisure, health and wellbeing. She was also vice-chair of the General Purposes Committee and when it merged with Standards. She served on the Licensing Committee, Healthier Communities Older Persons Scrutiny Panel, Planning Committee and the now defunct Street Management advisory committee.

In May 2019 she was honoured to be elected as the first citizen of Merton and due to the pandemic she served until September 2020. She became the longest continuous serving Mayor of Merton. During her Mayoral year she raised £87,000 net, over £100,000 gross for her two charities Macmillan Merton Cancer Support and Faith in Action helping the homeless. She was able to give both of her two chosen charities the sum of £40,000 each. In addition, she made smaller donations to Merton and Morden Guild and BAME Voice for their support during her Mayoral year. Janice had great support from the Aqua ladies of David Lloyd in Raynes Park and I am delighted to see them here tonight giving her support. After her Mayoral year she was part of the Mayoral fundraising Committee and the trust board helping the Mayors office with fundraising events and also collecting raffle prizes in support of the Mayors charities.

In 2021 she was elected to the board of the London Mayors Association and still elected this year for another term. The organised events for all 32 London mayors, attending meetings, protocol training day for all new mayors in Westminster Council and also the London Mayors Civic Service in Westminster Abbey. Because of Janice’s excellent skills in charity events, she is now the champion for organising the yearly Wimbledon Theatre event for the London Mayors Association which is very popular with the chain gangs. She is also a committee member of Macmillan Merton Cancer Support and also a school governor of St Mary’s Primary School in Merton.

Janice has given so much of her time to public duties with her outstanding skill and experience and therefore she deserves the honour of Honorary Alderwoman which I have no iota or scintilla of doubt whatsoever for her services for many years to the Borough. Our sincere thanks to Janice for all her work for the communities in Merton and I propose the motion, thank you very much Madam Mayor.

Councillor Foley:

Thank you Madam Mayor, Deputy Lieutenant. I have pleasure in seconding this motion and the speech I’d made actually repeats a lot of what Councillor Macauley has said. Janice was a Councillor for twelve years in Wimbledon Park, I had the pleasure of working with her for eight years sitting in this Chamber, not always agreeing with things that her party said as we will find out later tonight with various sides and being a true independent but it was in 2018 Janice approached me and asked if I would be her Deputy Mayor. It was a huge honour and in 2019 when she was elected as the first citizen of the Borough, I was Deputy Mayor – that’s when you really get to know somebody – a former Councillor told me you really get to know a Borough when you become Mayor or Deputy Mayor which you will be finding out as you travel right across the Borough Madam Mayor, but I thought I knew Janice in the eight years I’d spent with her but that final year and a bit, we had a very busy year and it was a real pleasure working with Janice. She is one of these people with a can-do attitude, I didn’t know her husband Andrew – Councillor Andrew Howard who’s here at that time, yes I’d met him in the Chamber but I got to know him as well through her – there were a lot of late evenings when we’d be at functions together, she was working tirelessly for her two charities Macmillan Merton and Faith in Action. I also got to know her children Ben and Bella who are here tonight as well supporting her. It was such a shame whilst we heard the net and the gross amount, to do all of that pre-Covid and we never actually had the ball – I think that’s always an unknown quantity what we could have actually smashed through but it was a real honour and I think so much has been said about her hard work Madam Mayor, Deputy Lieutenant I have pleasure seconding the motion for Janice to be Honorary Alderwoman London Borough of Merton.

The Mayor then invited Councillor Holden to speak to the motion.

Councillor Holden:

Thank you Madam Mayor.

On behalf of the Conservative Group I too am pleased that the former councillor and Mayor of Merton, Janice Howard, is to be bestowed the status of Honorary Alderman/woman of the London Borough of Merton. 

I'm proud that we can make this honour to my friend and former council colleague. 

Janice Howard served in this place as the Wimbledon Park ward councillor from 2010 to 2022.

Most notably she served as Mayor of Merton from May 2019 until September 2020, making Janice's term in office the longest in a generation. 

Janice served as Mayor with distinction, and it was unfortunate that COVID blighted the end of her mayoralty. 

The main result being the cancellation of the mayor's charity ball, which was a shame, and I for one had been looking forward to it. 

Her Deputy Mayor Cllr Ed Foley formed a good double act with Janice, and its nice to see that he is seconding the nomination.

Janice has an ability to get on with and work well cross-party, something which can be difficult for most of us in this place. 

An example of this is her serving on the mayor’s events committee and helping serve the mayoralty as a concept across the borough.

To that end I am grateful to Cllr Edith Macauley in the Labour Group for making the changes in the necessary committees to allow for us tonight to award the Honorary Alderman status.

Before retiring from work, Janice held a number of roles and jobs and was adept at event organisation. These talents she brought to her role as a councillor.

Organising successful events in our local Conservative Party, then her years of supporting events in the Mayor’s events committee, and latterly since leaving this Council with the Macmillan Merton Cancer charity.

Helping to generate lots of money for the Mayor’s charities and local charities.

Her hard-work and dedication also extended to serving in senior positions within our Conservative Group over the years, serving on a wide range of different council committees and in particular a focus on health.

At times her husband wondered why Janice was so busy, and so in 2018 the now Cllr Andrew Howard joined this place as member for Village, to find out.

Madam Mayor, I’m pleased tonight that we can award Janice Howard as Honorary Alderwoman for her years of dedicated service to this borough.

The motion was put to the vote and passed unanimously. Janice Howard was invited to receive a certificate conferring on her the title of Honorary Alderwoman duly affixed with the common seal of the Council.

RESOLVED:

That former Councillor Janice Howard is conferred with the title of Honorary Alderwoman of the London Borough of Merton in recognition of her loyal and distinguished service to the Council over many years.