Agenda item

Announcements

(a) To receive announcements from the Lord Mayor, Chief Executive, Service Director for Finance or Head of Legal Services;

(b) To receive announcements from the Leader, Cabinet Members or Committee Chairs.

Minutes:

The Lord Mayor made the following announcement:

· invited the Council to note the sad passing of Mrs Phyllis Ainsworth on 9th of September 2020 - she was Deputy Lady Mayoress in 1970/71, Lady Mayoress in 1994/95 and President of the Federation of Ex-Services Associations. Councillors were asked to join the Lord Mayor in observing 1 minute’s silence.

The Lord Mayor then requested that Council suspend the usual procedural rules to allow the Director of Public Health to provide an update to the Council on COVID-19. The Deputy Lord Mayor seconded the motion and this was agreed unanimously by Full Council.

The Director of Public Health provided an update on the current situation with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic as follows:

·	over the last few weeks there had been an increase in cases of COVID-19 across the country; within Plymouth the rate of cases was currently 16, per 100,000 in comparison to an average of 22 per 100,00 across the rest of England. Plymouth’s figures were below the national average however had increased considerably since the last update to Council;
·	it was recognised nationally that the majority of cases were in a younger population (working age to up to 50 years old) and that this cohort seemed to be less badly affected by the disease itself. The rates of those cases across the country remained relatively low however in some areas where early increases were experienced there were local lockdowns in place;
·	as winter was approaching it was expected that people would spend more time indoors and it was highlighted that COVID-19 could spread more easily in this environment due to less space and ventilation. This time of year also brought about more coughs and colds, many of which would not be COVID- 19, however would need to be treated as such due to the similarity of symptoms experienced;
·	it was recognised that there had been considerable issues linked to pillar 2 testing; some people were experiencing problems booking onto tests to get to the Seaton Barracks site or to get a home test. It was highlighted that the issue was in laboratory capacity;
·	despite the difficulties experienced by some in trying to get a test, the rate of testing had increased; in the last 7 days 3,300 tests had been carried out in Plymouth whereas over a month in the summer the rate was approximately 2,000. It was reiterated that only the person with COVID-19 symptoms was required to undertake a test other than the entire household;
·	to try to prevent the rise in COVID-19 associated deaths, guidance had been issued by the Government limiting social contact to a group of 6 people; it was highlighted that the more you minimise social contact the more you minimise the potential risk in contracting or spreading COVID-19.

The following key areas of questioning were raised by Members:

issues surrounding Track and Trace in terms of licensed premises and how businesses could be encouraged to collect this information;

how Plymouth University was going to oversee students were following Government guidelines relating to COVID-19 restrictions during Fresher’s Week, and how the rule of 6 was going to affect HMOs in the city whose occupancy was greater than this number;

what powers did the Director of Public Health, the Council and other responsible bodies have to ensure residents were acting in a responsible way in licensed premises during the pandemic.

The Chief Executive of the Council, Tracey Lee, then provided an update on COVID-19, efforts to provide key services throughout the pandemic and to restore them and work undertaken with partners to focus on recovery.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Tudor Evans OBE, made announcements including the following: testing capacity in Plymouth, the recruitment of COVID-19 Marshalls, Brexit and lorry parks, the Government’s consultation on housing, the importance of the defence economy in Plymouth, Plymouth railway station, the penalisation of Plymouth Albion and The Box in Plymouth.

Councillor Kate Taylor, Cabinet Member for Health made announcement regarding four care homes that were at outbreak status and two currently at suspected outbreak status but these were not all residents this could be staff.

Councillor Jon Taylor, Cabinet Member for Education, Transformation and Skills made announcement on COVID-19 in Plymouth schools and advised that there were currently three schools that had confirmed cases and each school was following local risk assessments and DFE guidance.

Councillor Pete Smith, Deputy Leader made announcements regarding the opening of Plympton and Estover Libraries and over the next week all the remaining libraries would be open.

Councillor Sally Haydon, Cabinet Member for Customer Focus and Community Safety thanked staff at the Contact Centre for their hard work and who have made it to number 1 of customer satisfaction rates in June.

Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Housing and Co-operative Development regarding Crowd Fund Plymouth and it had helped 93 eligible projects. We have increased our match funding from £20,000 to £30,000 and a bonus of up to £15,000 for projects that meet our climate emergency initiative.

Councillor Mary Aspinall, Chair of the Scrutiny Management Board advised Members that individual scrutiny panels would begin to start up again, however would have a clear focus on the impact of COVID-19 upon the specific service areas.