To receive the Leader’s Update and ask any questions.
Minutes:
Members received an update from Councillor M. Brunt, Leader of the Council, which highlighted the Council’s continuing ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Council had been in a good position to respond to the third national lockdown thanks to its pre-planning work. The Council had offered volunteer support for the public health and primary care rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination centres which had been well received.
The Leader highlighted the work of the community development teams on addressing food poverty, supporting food banks and setting up local food clubs for residents. Three food clubs in Merstham, Woodhatch and Horley had been established (where residents can pay an annual subscription of £1 to join and then pay £2 a week for a bag of food). Two further food clubs were due to be set up in Redhill and in the north of the borough.
He thanked the waste and recycling teams for continuing to operate normal services and clear huge amounts of additional waste. This included extra work over the Christmas period to clear the waste dumped at the Council’s bring sites. The record amounts of recycling put out by residents meant that the Council had received additional revenue from paper recycling.
Other areas highlighted were the continued high standards of maintaining the Borough’s green spaces, the work of the housing and homelessness teams to support residents, including young people, and the Revenue and Benefits teams’ work to support businesses and help residents with Council Tax payments,
For future plans, the Leader looked to the continuing investment in the Borough and town centres, such as Marketfield Way development in Redhill and housing projects in Cromwell Road, Redhill and Pitwood Park. He welcomed the input of the Commercial Strategy Scrutiny Panel to scrutinise the Council’s commercial approach. The environmental sustainability strategy was developing well with the support of a full-time project officer and the Council was working closely with Raven Housing Trust on zero carbon housing projects. The Council was also in a good position financially even after drawing on some of its reserves.
Members discussed the following areas:
· Vaccinations update and local data on roll-out - Members highlighted the work of the Council’s volunteers in the Borough for the vaccination programme. They asked how many people in the first four vulnerable categories had received their first and second doses and if local data figures on vaccinations received by residents going out of the borough for their vaccinations. The Leader confirmed that NHS figures were broken down by health authorities using a central database. As soon as a more local breakdown was available this information would be shared with Members.
· Volunteering – Members praised the work of the thousands of volunteers in the Borough during the past year and discussed ways to thank them for coming forward and recognising their hard work and gaining their support for future volunteering. One idea was to light up the Town Hall with a thank you message as part of the forthcoming Volunteers Week.
Councillor N. Harrison, Committee Chair, thanked the Leader for his update to the Committee and his work in leading the Council through the COVID-19 emergency response.
RESOLVED – that the Leader’s Update and the observations of the Committee be noted.