Councillor Kate Taylor, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care made the following announcements:

·         This week Councillor Taylor attended the fourth Annual Excellence in Care Awards - this event organised by Plymouth City Council celebrates care workers in the city both in domiciliary care and in care and nursing homes and all those that support the care system. Thanks were extended to all those working in this sector for providing such excellent service;

·         The Culinary Care Cookbook is due to launch on 07 November 2019 at Plymouth City College. The recipes within are favourites of care home residents and the book has been developed in partnership between Plymouth City Council, Plymouth City College and Plymouth College of Art.

Councillor Laing, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People made the following announcement:

·         This week Councillor Laing attended an award ceremony as part of the annual ‘You Can Do It’ awards – this special event celebrates the achievements of our looked after children. Thanks were extended to the participation team for all their work in organising the event.

Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance made the following announcement:

·         Following the manifesto pledge to improve our shopping centres Mutley Plain now has a new paved area where the public toilet block was previously. A consultation will commence on 14 October on free parking facilities in Ermington Terrace and Napier terrace in order to encourage use of the shops, restaurants and leisure amenities on Mutley Plan. 

Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Housing and Co-operative Development made the following announcements:

·         Congratulations were extended to Rent Plus for winning the National Housing Federation Housing Award for the most innovative affordable housing solution nationally;

·         Westward House have secured planning permission for the brownfield site in Ham Green – this will provide 5 bungalows for older people, all of which will be wheelchair accessible and will be let at social rent. Building works commence this week;

·         Congratulations were offered to the partnership of businesses in the city working with Plymouth City Council to tackle child poverty. The annual quiz held last week raised a fantastic £17k for child poverty initiatives. Thanks and congratulations were extended to all those involved and to the winning team from Plymouth City Council, who donated their prize to the Lord Mayor’s Charity.

The following announcements were made on behalf of Councillor Jon Taylor, Cabinet Member for Education, Transformation and Skills:

·         A letter has been written to the Secretary of State for Education ahead of his visit to the University Technical College Plymouth tomorrow. This is a requests for a discussion on the challenges relating to school standards and for resources to support the Plymouth Challenge Fund to align us with other parts of the country. Additional funding is also needed to maintain the Plymouth school of creative arts and support the Special Educational Needs and Disability agenda in particular;

·         The recent Ofsted monitoring visit at Torbridge found there had been excellent progress under new leadership; the successful intervention however will likely see the school handed over to an academy to run in future.