Agenda item

COVID-19: Our Response to Date

To receive a verbal update on the Council’s response to the COVID-19 emergency.

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Brunt, presented a summary of the Council’s response to the COVID-19 emergency.

 

The Leader firstly set out the Community Support response as follows:

 

·       A Community Support Centre had been established at the Harlequin

·       1,359 emergency food packages, 2,209 hot meals and 291 prescriptions had been delivered to residents

·       19,450 items had been provided to food banks and charities

·       The Council had worked with Voluntary Action Reigate and Banstead to co-ordinate 900 new volunteers

·       47 extra households had been housed in temporary accommodation

·       4,162 residents that were shielding had been contacted, 106 befriending calls had been made each week, and 1,299 helpline calls had been answered and callers assisted

·       Council tax hardship support had been provided and residents had been helped to access Universal Credit and money support services

·       £20.8m of business grants had been distributed to 1,570 businesses

·       An additional business discretionary fund had been established. 

 

The Leader then explained how the Council had responded to the impact of lockdown as follows:

 

Around the Borough

·       Waste and recycling collections (except for green waste) were ongoing with collection weights up by 30%

·       There had been an 80% increase in fly-tipping incidents that had to be cleared

·       Parks had remained open

·       The Council had strengthened capacity at Redstone Cemetery

 

Across the Council

·       Approximately 250 staff were working remotely

·       Over 90% of staff were able to work

·       Around 90 staff had been fully or partially redeployed to support the emergency response effort.

 

The Leader conveyed his sincere thanks to all staff involved in the response, from the IT team to the Greenspaces team, and felt that residents had re-discovered the role of the Council in the community. Councillor Knight expressed his thanks to the Housing team; and Councillor Humphreys thanked the Economic Prosperity and Revenues teams for their support to local businesses. 

 

The Executive Member for Finance and Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Schofield presented a summary of the impact of the COVID-19 emergency on the Council’s finances and income:

 

·       £1.56m of funding had been received from the Government and Surrey County Council

·       The estimated COVID-19 response costs were £1.18m

·       The estimated loss of income associated with COVID-19 was £2.26m

·       The Council had been compensated for income lost due to business rate reliefs

·       £0.75m had been received for additional Council Tax hardship relief, however increased demand for relief could amount to £1.46m

·       Potential business rate and council tax losses (arrears) were £5.81m (council tax losses would be shared by the precepting authorities). 

 

Councillor Schofield stated his thanks to the Finance team for their work and concluded that the Council was able to demonstrate that it was in a robust financial position.

 

The Leader invited questions and comments from Visiting Members, which were responded to as follows:

 

·       Councillor Bramhall clarified that the increase in fly-tipping had included waste being left outside closed charity shops and community recycling centres.

·       The Leader explained that the local public health response to the Government’s Test and Trace service would be co-ordinated by Surrey County Council

·       In response to an observation about the lack of protective screens at the East Surrey hospital outpatient’s department, the Leader explained that he would raise the matter in conversation with the Chief Executive of the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

·       The Leader would liaise with Surrey County Council about the cancellation of the Reigate and Banstead Local Committee meeting, scheduled for June; and

·       The Executive were supportive of learning from the crisis and emphasised the positive impact that remote meetings had on mitigating the environmental impact of the Council. It was confirmed that recruitment was ongoing for a role to lead on the Council’s approach to addressing climate change.

 

RESOLVED: That the verbal update be noted.

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