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congratulations were offered to all nominees and winners of the Council’s Star Awards which took place on Saturday 14 September 2019; the event celebrated the achievements of staff and partners;

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Safer Plymouth (Community Safety Partnership) were successful in their application for Purple Flag status for the City. The Purple Flag was given to cities and towns that meet or surpass the standards of excellence in managing its evening and night time economy. The assessors commented that the application was one of the best they have received and as a result we were nominated for three awards which was unusual for a new applicant.  Plymouth were pleased to win the Wellbeing Award and were runners up for two other awards. Rachael Hind, Licensing Service Manager, Chief Inspector Rob Mooney and Cat Macdonald from Best Bar None attended the meeting to accept the awards;

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Plymouth had a busy weekend on 14 and 15 September 2019 hosting a variety of events including the Respect Festival, the Seafood Festival, Marine Park celebrations, the Topper Sailing Nationals, the Star Awards and the launch of the Music Fightback series of concerts;

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reference was made to Brexit planning however details would be provided at Cabinet on 17 September 2019.

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Plymouth City Council declared a climate change emergency in March 2019 and had since signed up to Devon-wide emergency declaration recognising that a collaborative approach was essential. There were plans for the Council to deliver 54 pop-up electric vehicle charging points across the city, to change 61 vehicles in the Council’s existing fleet to electric vehicles resulting in a saving of 1000 tonnes of C02 over an eight year period as well as plans to build a solar car port at Milehouse Park and Ride;

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the Council had developed a Climate Emergency Action Plan –  which had seven key themes including, engagement and responsibility, corporate emissions, city wide approach, mobility, biodiversity, homes, business and new green power generation. The Action Plan would be submitted to Full Council in November 2019;

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Plymouth declared that it was to develop the first Marine Park in the country; it was hoped that this would be a legacy for Plymouth and a great opportunity for the city, in terms of sustainability, economically and health and wellbeing;

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the customer services team were congratulated for their work in achieving improved efficiency, savings and continuing to improve housing benefit and council tax benefit support processing times. The team had also achieved the top quantile performance compared with all local authorities across the country for the DWP to reduce fraud, through data matching verified pensions and earning schemes;

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in the recent government spending  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26