To receive any announcements from the Leader.
Minutes:
The Leader made the following announcements:
“We recently marked 100 days of operating on an emergency footing by publishing a press release and infographic image summarising the Council’s response to the pandemic. We closed the Council offices in March and rapidly moved to a virtual footing, successfully adapting our services to ensure residents were well supported whilst maintaining 'business as usual' across our services. On behalf of residents and businesses, I would like to thank all the Council staff for their dedication and professionalism during this difficult time. Together, they have worked with the foodbanks to distribute over 230,000 meals, received over 22,000 requests for help via the community helpline, made over 14,000 checks on vulnerable residents, carried out over 1,000 business compliance visits and delivered over 300 prescriptions, in addition to keeping all the core services running as normal. The Borough's Emergency Centre has been meeting on a daily basis throughout this period and will continue to do so until this pandemic has passed. The Council is now focusing its efforts on the various recovery phases but also preparing for a possible second wave.
The Council has been working hard to support businesses and has paid over £12m in grants to local businesses. We are now processing discretionary business grant applications and as of today have allocated £645k to 114 businesses who were not eligible for the retail, leisure and hospitality grant.
With the help of funding of £88k from the European Regional Development Fund, the Council has been working to support to support the safe reopening of high streets and other commercial areas by assisting with publicity materials, signage, sanitising stations and handwashing facilities, queueing systems and barriers. The Council has also been the only borough in Surrey to receive over £40,000 from the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership which the Council will use to improve accessibility and help retailers and shoppers stay safe as shops, bars and restaurants begin to reopen over the coming weeks and months.
A one minute silence was held on 22 June to mark Armed Forces Week which is an annual national event which gives the country the opportunity to show their support for the men and women who make up today's Armed Forces community. We marked the start of the week by releasing a video of our flag raising ceremony, akin to our VE Day commemorations, with new Mayor of Spelthorne Cllr Colin Barnard; the Council's armed forces champion, Cllr Robin Sider BEM; Chief Executive Daniel Mouawad and bugler Richard Llewellyn in attendance. We proudly supports our armed forces and in April 2014 signed the Armed Forces Covenant. We were awarded the Bronze for Employer recognition scheme and are currently working towards achieving the Silver award. The Council is committed to work closely with the Armed Forces Community and has now also established the Spelthorne Armed Forces Partnership specifically for this purpose.
Two days ago marked the end of Pride month and we showed our support by reflecting the rainbow in our Council logo across all of our social media channels. As an organisation we recognise that we are on a mission to continue to develop our own diversity and inclusion plans to embrace and celebrate Spelthorne’s diversity.
Details will be announced next week of the following task groups:
· Governance
· Local Plan
· Staines Masterplan
· Climate and Environment
· Financial Reporting
· Property and Investment Review
· Youth Council
· River Thames”