Councillor Mark Deacon, Cabinet member for Customer Services, Culture, Leisure and Sport gave the following announcements:

The Library service had made a successful bid the Reading Agency as part of the national quick read programme and to celebrate World Book Night on 23^rd April. The Council would be donating 500 copies of The Black Mountain by Kate Mosse;

Libraries across the city had been reintroducing more activities that had been suspended for two years during the pandemic. The Library service had hosted a craft activity at Central Library and restarted Lego play in all libraries;

Armed Forces day would return to Plymouth Hoe again on 25^th June 2022 and would include a dedicated parade of veterans to recognise the 40^th anniversary of the Falklands War.

The Rehabilitation Triathlon hosted by the Royal Marines would take place in the city for this first time with outstanding athletes, Paralympian’s and Invictus Games competitors among them. Plymouth’s military history would be celebrated with a freedom of the city parade and include serving regiments and veterans to mark the 60^th anniversary of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery in Plymouth;

In August 2022, the British Fireworks Championship would return;

The Jubilee bank holiday weekend would see the one big summer music festival take to Plymouth Hoe and include a line up of Years and Years, Basement Jaxx, The Libertines and Supergrass;

Sunset Live in Central Park would host most global music superstars and include Paloma Faith, Simply Red, Michael Ball and Alfie Boe;

There had been a new exhibition at The Box which launched on 3^rd March 2022. ‘Another Crossing – Artists Revisit the Mayflower Voyage’ had been developed in partnership with the Fuller Craft Museum and Plymouth College of Art and had brough together artists from the United States of America, UK and Holland to create a cross-cultural examination of that moment in history;

There had been a continued focus on the growth and development of core projects such as the Detached Youth Work team who had focused on developing their wider offer within the city to combat increased anti-social behaviour reports;

The Young Carers Project had been offering increased levels of support for young people as requests for the service increased. The project had been working with the Time 4 U partnership and continued to run five sessions a week, working with 75 young carers and one-to-one sessions supporting young carers that had been struggling with their mental health/caring role/relationships at home;

Councillor Jonathan Drean, Cabinet member for Transport provided the following updates:

The Plymouth Highways teams in 2021 had completed a full renovation of seven complex subways, repainted six footway bridges, laid 50,000 m2 of carriageway re-surfacing, 9,000 meters of pre-patching, 3,200 pothole repairs and 2,000 street lighting column replacements;

Plymouth City Council had introduced a new AI a new digital surfacing replacement;

The Council had been on track to deliver the Safer Streets programme and had installed six CCTV, 54 lighting and 12 help point upgrades; The Keyham improvement works had completed 72 lighting positions and eight CCTV deployments;

Flooding hotspots continued to be a focus of attention and major realignment works had been completed along the Ridgeway which had suffered some flooding;

Cabinet were shown a video in relation to EV’s in the City.

Councillor Dave Downie, Cabinet member for Education, Skills and Children and Young People provided the following updates for Cabinet:

Plymouth’s early years settings had achieved 97% good or outstanding outcomes, this had now reflected the national average following a period of five years of being below the national average standards;

Secondary schools attainment levels had increased to levels above the national average;

OFSTED praised improvement to adult education and Plymouth’s provision had been good with a solid foundation found to be outstanding;

Councillor Mrs Maddi Bridgeman, Cabinet member for Environment and Street Scene provided the following updates to Cabinet:

Grass cutting season had commenced with a new digitised system taking into account the agreed operational policy and optimisation of cuts. Digital scheduling would enable improved compliance to ensure areas were not missed;

Plymouth City Council teams from Strategic Planning and Infrastructure and Street Services along with community members and partners Plymouth Tree Partnership Plymouth Open Space Network, Woodland Trust, National Trust and South Hams and West Devon Councils had planted 2978 trees in 2021;

Following Storm Eunice and the proceeding weather events, Plymouth City Council received over 220 reports of trees and branches down which had caused disruption around the City blocking roads, footpaths and driveways and in one case trapping a disabled resident in their property. The Tree Team with the aid of private contractors, Plymouth City Council Highways and South West Highways coordinated an immediate response to keep the City moving and to help Residents;

The Council had been working closely with National Highways to identify planned lane and road closures to enable cleansing teams to collect litter and fly tipped items. The cost of commission for the Council’s own closures could run into tens of thousands of pounds. Over the past couple of weeks the Council had carried out the following:

·         March 2nd & 3rd Manadon to Leigham, East Bound, collected 820kg (team of 6)

·         Match 7th Camels Head up to the A38, West Bound, collected 130kg (team of 6)

·         March 7th St Budeaux to Camels Head bypass, East Bound, collected 260kg (team of 6)

·         There had been planned works scheduled for March 25th at Deep Lane to Marsh Mills.

The playground improvement at Lancaster Gardens in Whitleigh had been completed and was awaiting sign off. Contractors would be starting Staples Close in Beliver and this would be part of 2021/22 improvements on 10 parks.

Councillor John Riley, Cabinet Member for Governance, HR, IT and Community Safety provided the following announcement to Cabinet:

Safer Plymouth had commenced with 1,759 people singing up to the week long learning event and networking organised by the Community Connections service. This has been the first event run in that manner and had attracted national interest and attendance. The focus had been to prevent hate, violence against women and girls, drugs, Child Exploitation and anti-social behaviour;

Operation Medussa took place between the 2^nd and 3^rd March 2022, Devon and Cornwall Police undertook a two day proactive operation linked to Operation Tarak which had been the National Crime Agency’s response to County Lines. Operation Medussa had seen two days of action which targeted County Lines and dangerous drugs networks in Plymouth which had been aided by 30 officers from Merseyside Police concentrating on five specific county lines. Over two days 46 arrests had been made with a firearms seized alongside large quantities of drugs and cash;

On 9 March 2022, Plymouth City Council would be signing up to the Anti-Social Behaviour pledge alongside Devon and Cornwall Police, Plymouth Community Homes, Livewest and Guinness Housing Association. The Anti-Social Behaviour pledge had been a commitment by organisations to victims of anti-social behaviour and included terms to actively promote and use the community trigger.