(a)

Councillor Peter Smith (Deputy Leader) made the following announcements:

·        

in July 2020 the Council successfully launched a series of digital Heritage Trails across the city as part of the Mayflower 400 programme of activities. The Mayflower, Hoe and City Centre trails were made available to the general public and had been very successful to date;

·        

as part of LGBT history month ‘Rainbow Connections’ was a brand new trail which was launched on the Plymouth Trails app on 3rd February 2021. As the Country was in lockdown, this trail was launched for local people (within walking distance) to enjoy. However, those who live in wider Plymouth could still use the app and content from their homes, or wait for local restrictions to lifted;

·        

the Plymouth Trails app could be downloaded for free from the AppStore or PlayStore. For more information head to www.visitplymouth.co.uk/trails

·        

during this latest lockdown the Council had kept open all of its parks and greenspaces; all our 127 playgrounds; all our 37 allotments.  Outdoor sports facilities continued to be maintained and these would be opened as and when government guidance allowed;

·        

thanks were offered to the HROD team for all their contributions. This had been a difficult year, dealing with the pandemic and at the same time continuing with business as usual and beginning the work to modernise the way the Council operates. We would not have been able to deliver our services without the goodwill of the workforce – going the extra mile. Thanks were also offered to the workforce for all that they have done. In recognition of their work each employee had been granted an additional day’s annual leave (prorata) for 2021/22;

·        

confirmation had been received from the Cabinet Office that the elections would go ahead on 6 May 2021. The Government have stated there will be additional funding given to councils to hold the local and Police and Crime Commissioner elections. The Candidate’s and Agent’s timetable would be published by the end of February and would be sent to all elected members and stakeholders. This would also be published on the Council’s website;

(b)

Councillor Sue Dann (Cabinet Member for Environment and Streetscene made the following announcement:

·        

the council had bid for a series of bids (jointly between the UK and France) to look specifically at green growth, reducing carbon emissions, managing flood risk and looking at fish diversity in coastal waters. The council had won its part of the bid to look at flood risk management in disadvantaged communities (approximately 500,000 euros); there were 5 projects and 3 of them had a Plymouth link. The Council would lead on the flood risk project;

(c)

Councillor Mark Coker (Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure) made the following announcement:

·        

Plymouth Highways would be featured  the next Local Councils Road Innovation Network Group for all the work done for covid related issues to highways;

(d)

The Leader delivered an update on behalf of Councillor Sally Haydon (Cabinet Member for Customer Focus and Community Safety):

·        

Environmental Protection had issued 175 fixed penalty notices per month for dropping litter;

·        

the Council had continued to prosecute people found guilty of fly tipping;

·        

the staff at bereavement services had coped remarkably well during the pandemic;

·        

contractors had been appointed for the crematorium facility planned for the east of the city; that project would see a complete modernisation of the crematorium;

·        

142 Plymouth Registry Office weddings had taken place; couples whose ceremonies that had been affected by the pandemic would be prioritised;

·        

Coroner inquests had been held remotely – and delays had remain low;

·        

Call centre staff were thanked for their work during the pandemic;

(e)

Councillor Jon Taylor (Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Transformation) made the following announcement:

·        

Tina Brinkworth was welcomed to the Council, the new Head of Skills;

·        

the skills Launchpad was continuing to progress; there was a lot of demand due to the situation with the Covid pandemic. The Government announced there was to be a new Commissioner for Education Recovery (Sir Kevin Collins) – this was welcomed as a focus on the future was needed;

·        

the Council had secured funding for an Adult Skills Hub from the DWP – a Youth Hub coordinator (Jo Lacey) was seconded from City College and would start in February;

·        

Barclays had offered a home for the Skills Launchpad – a hub to access in the city centre was welcomed;

·        

On Course South West had an Ofsted visit last week; a report was expected within the next few months;

·        

remote learning was important – the council continued to support vulnerable children during the pandemic. The schools had adapted well to home working and were thanked for their hard work;

·        

the online learning offer was considered high quality for academies; schools were coming up with creative approaches for helping to support children;

·        

work was being undertaken to develop a better alignment of the education offer to the city’s wider aim of economic growth in the city;

·        

the Inclusion Strategy Board commenced on 4 February – this is a strand of school improvement work.