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the first group of social workers had completed the National Assessment and Accreditation (NAAS) Verification of Practice Skills; this had earned them formal accreditation from the Department for Education as either Approved Child and Family Practitioner, or an Approved Child and Family Practice Supervisor.

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on Thursday, 12 September 2019 Exercise Short Sermon had taken place; the exercise was undertaken on a three yearly basis and involved multi agencies working together; the exercise was designed to test the emergency response at Devonport Naval Base and the Council’s Offsite Emergency Plan;  the exercise was overseen by regulators who had deemed that it had been completed successfully;

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the Council’s Public Protection Service had been successful in prosecuting an individual who had been selling a waste collection service; the individual had been burning, fly tipping and passing waste on to others to dispose of illegally; he had received a Criminal Behaviour Order which prohibited him from working with waste for five years; officers involved in this prosecution were thanked for their work;

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in a case brought by the Trading Standards service, an individual who had been caught with a huge amount of illegal tobacco had been ordered to pay £55,000 (he was also ordered to pay the prosecution costs of £17,500) under the Proceeds of Crime; he was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to undertake 200 hours’ unpaid work; officers involved with this prosecution were thanked for their work.

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the Government’s school funding announcement for 2020/21 had not included additional funding for maintained nursery schools which provided a vital service for children with special educational needs and disability, as well as those disadvantaged children; this was of concern and over the next few months there would be a robust campaign to secure additional funding, as these services would be under real threat, if no new funding was available.

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there was just 12 months to go until 16 September 2020 which would mark the 400^th anniversary of the historic Mayflower voyage; there would be over 100 Plymouth Mayflower events or activities which included Mayflower Week 2020 (Field Gun Festival, Mayflower ceremony, Royal Marines Rehabilitation Triathlon, Mayflower Muster), Illuminate 2019 and 2020 (light based festival), the opening of the Box in spring 2020, This Land (a production by Theatre Royal Plymouth and the Wampanoag) and ‘Settlement’ (a large scale installation of public art);

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the Mayflower 400 Community Sparks fund enabled funding for local community projects; Councillors were encouraged to use their community grant fund to also support community projects;

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Mayflower sports week would run in conjunction with Plymouth Argyle, Albion and the Raiders.

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there would be global climate strikes taking place across the world during 20 – 27 September 2019 which were part of the young people’s initiative led by Greta Thunberg; following the Council’s declaration of a climate emergency, other organisations had followed Plymouth’s lead which included Plymouth University, Hospital Trust and other Devon Councils; Plymouth City Council would also be supporting the Devon wide climate emergency declaration working with its partners, cross boundaries, to reduce, where possible, the carbon footprint and also in the future lobbying Government;

work undertaken by the Council included the installation of 54 pop-up chargers in nine hubs across residential areas with on street parking, the replacement of 61 diesel vehicles with electric vehicles which would reduce carbon dioxide 1000 tonnes over the life of the vehicle, installation of a solar car port at Millhouse Park and Ride site and low carbon heating and lighting across the Council’s estate;

a city wide action plan would be developed which would cover key themes including power generation, working with businesses, homes, planting more trees, corporate emissions and the people of Plymouth;

the people of Plymouth were key in ensuring that they were part of this climate emergency; the climate change survey had been launched on the Council’s website and would be open for one month; residents were encouraged to complete the survey;

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Plymouth Sound had been declared as a national marine park following the announcement on the Hoe on 13/14 September 2019; this was the first marine park in the UK and the pioneering work undertaken would be able to be shared with other coastline cities across the UK; the National Marine Park would ensure the future sustainability of Plymouth Sound.