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as of this week, all of the Council’s 11 libraries had opened offering a range of services for residents, including online services such as eAudiobooks and Select and Collect;

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Plymouth City Council was the first local authority in the region to be able to facilitate coroner and jury inquests (following the pandemic);

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the media coverage for Mayflower 400 related activity in September 2020 had been enormous and worldwide with the naming of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship and the No New Worlds installation at The Box; from 14 September to 24 September 2020 there had been over one thousand media articles worldwide;

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Brickfields was nearing completion; it was anticipated that the newly laid track would be available for public use on 26 October 2020;

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West Hoe Tennis Courts had received a make-over which included new surfaces, nets and posts and a new access gate; the cost of an annual pass was £35 or £5 per time.

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the capital and revenue monitoring report 2020/21 – quarter 2 would be considered at the Cabinet meeting in November 2020;

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preparation work was underway with the budget for the next financial year; the budget together with the Council Tax base setting and the Council Tax Support Scheme would be considered by Council in January 2021; it was anticipated that the Local Government Finance Settlement would be known at the end of December 2020 which would make setting the budget for 2021/22 challenging.

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reassurance was provided that the council’s finances were currently in a reasonable position.

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National Care Leaver’s Week was taking place from Monday 26 October to Sunday 1 November 2020; the Council would be working in partnership with Barnardos and a wide range of local services on developing and delivering a range of activities as part of Care Leavers Week 2020;

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the main focus of the week would be on raising awareness of the issues facing care experienced young people to improve understanding and service delivery; it would also be used to celebrate achievement of Plymouth’s Care Leavers, as well as kick starting activity to improve the city’s activity and support in this area.

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the city had a total of 97 care homes; there were currently four outbreaks in care homes (Hamilton House, Parkwood House, Waterloo and Consort);

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the total number of homes with one single confirmed case included Bethany Christian Home, Elburton Heights, Thorn Park, Camelia House, Tamar House, Plymbridge House and Wisteria;

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there was one home with a suspected outbreak/single case in Merafield View;

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there had been one confirmed death in a care home;

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there were currently 15 residents and 26 care home workers with suspected/confirmed cases;

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the Council continued to support homes with additional deliveries of PPE if required, with clinical advice through the city’s Care Home Liaison service, with guidance and training on infection control procedures and through daily contact with a member of the multi-disciplinary team;

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the Council had been able to secure additional Coronavirus testing capacity for Plymouth by providing the ground floor of the Guildhall; this would operate in addition to the regional test centre at the former Seaton  Barracks site; this site would be operational from 15 October 2020 and would operate between 8am and 8pm;

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the Council would be signing up to Unison’s national ‘Stop the Spread’ campaign which supported care workers to self-isolate, if they showed symptoms, in order to avoid spreading the virus; it was recognised that care workers were undervalued in society but the pandemic had highlighted the invaluable work they did and their contribution to the city;

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the council had invested £10m in a new care centre which would provide a minimum of 12 ensuite bedrooms, six self-contained flats which would offer meaningful activity and quiet spaces, sensory spaces, relaxation, engagement, education and assessment; this would help to reduce the number of people needing to leave the city for care and support.

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as part of the Covid related food insecurity programme, the Council had launched a Covid food aid programme where local organisations could apply for a small grant of up to £10,000;

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an urgent decision had been signed to allow the Council to distribute the Government’s Test and Trace Discretionary Support Payment of £500, to people on low incomes who were required to self-isolate; the total sum awarded was £77,368.83 which would support 154 eligible applicants;

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the Make a Change Campaign had been launched last week; last year local peopled donated £1,500 to the Soup Run, Shekinah and Path; terminals were now available in a number of business across the city;

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decisions being taken this week included the updated HMO Licensing Policy and implementation of the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard Policy;

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October was Black History Month which allowed everyone to reflect and celebrate the important contributions that black individuals and communities had made to society;

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work was being carried out to install a memorial plaque to the victims of the slave trade in the Peace Garden before the end of November 2020;

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the Council continued to work with its partners of the Unify Plymouth project; this project targeted four of the least cohesive wards in the city; a launch event would be held at the end of October 2020;

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Anti-Slavery day was on 18 October 2020 which gave an opportunity to raise awareness of human trafficking and modern slavery; (the Council was committed to tackling modern slavery through its procurement processes and Charter);

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it was with the deepest regret to have to advise Cabinet that Ann Wilkinson passed away last week; she was a staff member at Plymouth and Devon Race Equality Council and had served for more than 10 years as a Co-Director;

Ann’s commitment to challenging prejudice and tackling hate crime was singular and her unswerving commitment to promoting a positive vision of good race relations in the city; the city owed her a debt of gratitude.

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a large amount of working was being undertaken with the Council’s partners relating to modern slavery; on 19 October 2020 the Council together with Devon and Cornwall Police would be raising awareness with residents in the city centre to share ways of how to report modern slavery

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for the second year running Plymouth had been accredited with the ‘Purple Flag’; this was given to cities and towns that met or surpassed the standards of excellence in managing its evening and night time economy; the Council had worked with businesses and its partners to achieve this accreditation;

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the Council had received funding from the Government to pay for Covid Marshalls; the work of the ‘Plymouth Against Retail Crime’ Rangers had been important in helping the city to keep going during the pandemic, in particular working to keep people safe and Covid secure;

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since August 2020, the Environmental Protection Service had undertaken 66 prosecutions for a variety of environmental crimes which totalled fines of £28,183; a new approach was being undertaken to identify people who were dumping rubbish and fly tipping; a dedicated Facebook account had been set up in order to gather evidence;

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the level of fixed penalty notices (£400) was set by Defra; however it was considered that this was an insufficient amount to deter people from dumping rubbish or fly tipping;

it was therefore proposed to recommend that a letter be sent to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to seek to increase the level of fines.

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the Green Minds project had been funded through the European Regional Development Fund (€4m) under the Innovation Actions Programme and included the University of Plymouth, Real Ideas Organisation, Plymouth College of Art, Devon Wildlife Trust, The Data Place and the National Trust as partners; the project would help to re-wild urban areas and encourage people from across the city to enjoy the health benefits from blue and green spaces;

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as part of the Green Minds project, a family of beavers would be released in the Forder Valley, as part of the new nature scheme;

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further funding of £170k for the Future Parks Accelerator had been secured which would extend the scheme until 2022;  this had been funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Trust;

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the Council had won a Greener Homes Grant (£3.3m) to deliver improvements to 300 fuel poor homes; the six month programme would support 43 full time jobs, installing over 850 energy measures result in 612 tonnes of co2 saved annually and £150,501 annual utility bill savings;

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£300,000 had been secured through the OLEV on-street electric vehicle charging grant; the fund would enable the Council to deliver 50 on-street electric vehicle charge points to help Plymouth residents in the transition to cleaner, greener transport.

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the launch of e-Voyager, the UK’s first sea-going electric ferry had been successful; the local authority had worked with partners to design and develop the vessel;  the launch had received national media coverage;

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the Charles Cross Transport Improvement Scheme had won the Re-Engineered Project Over £3m Award at the Institution of Civil Engineers South West Civil Engineering Awards 2020; the scheme had been described as a great example of engineering with people in mind, there had been really good communication and articulation with the local community on what was being done, why it was being done and what would be achieved;

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wished to thank the residents of Plymouth for wearing face coverings on public transport in order to protect themselves and others.

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around 14 schools were affected by a positive Covid case at any one time, leading to 800-1000 pupils in bubbles self-isolating;

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Woodlands Special School had been fully closed for a period due  to a case/suspected cases but the school had now re-opened;

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Brook Green Centre for Learning was fully closed until after half term due to a number positive cases and a significant number of staff and pupils self-isolating;

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all schools were following their Risk Assessments, Public Health England and Public Health advice and were managing well;

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during the pandemic early years childcare providers had seen a decrease in income (although they were in receipt of income from Plymouth City  Council) and have benefited from Government aid; however the disruption to business, the additional costs associated with implementing Covid safety measures and the lack of uncertainty regarding the take up of childcare places, the future of the childcare market remained extremely unpredictable;

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Skills4Plymouth had completed its first full month’s review of the Launchpad and there were pleasing figures on usage and positive feedback.