i) Chairman of Council
ii) Leader of the Council
iii) Chief Executive
Minutes:
Chairman
The Chairman started his announcements by paying his own tribute, and he was sure, and that of all Members, to the Officers, who through the last difficult months had ensured the council retained the highest level of service to the people of West Lindsey.
The Chairman also acknowledged the difficulties many staff would have faced working from home whilst juggling family concerns and commitments, like many across the country and thanked them for rising to the challenge. He highly commended those Officers whom had been re-deployed to ensure essential services had maximum capacity.
A number of events the Chairman had had the pleasure in attending, on behalf of the Council, prior to the Lockdown, were shared with Members these had included: -
The well attended launch of the West Lindsey Good Cause Lottery Launch at Hemswell Court on 3 March;
Civic functions hosted by both North Lincolnshire Council and Market Rasen Town Council on 6 and 8 March respectively
The opening of the welding and fabrication suite at Gainsborough College on 13 March where it had been a pleasure to accompany Sir Edward Leigh to the event.
And finally attendance at the Market Rasen Races Family Day Event partly sponsored by West Lindsey District Council on 15 March.
The Lockdown had seen a number of the Chairman’s own events cancelled most notably the Annual Community Awards and his much anticipated Charity concert. It was hoped both events could be re-arranged once Government advice allowed.
Lockdown had brought with it the opportunity to experience some events on a virtual platform for the first time, such as the Lincolnshire Show and the Mayflower 400. Whilst the experience had been different nothing could quite beat the atmosphere of the real thing!
Leader
The Leader addressed Council and updated the Chamber in respect of the following matters: -
It had been several weeks since Council had last met and the Leader was hopeful it would not be long before we could meet again at the Guildhall. He understood from the Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, that Government advice would soon be available to help facilitate this.
When last addressing Council the Leader had hoped that that LGA Peer Review would have been discussed and published, he apologised that this had not been feasible owing to the Covid 19 pandemic. He remained committed to the outcome of the report and hoped to be able to complete this by the Autumn of this year.
The Leader spoke of how tremendously proud he had been of the Council Officers over the past 3 months as they had played their part in providing the civil response to the national emergency.
Thirty seven members of staff had been re-deployed from their regular duties to new roles supporting the work related to Covid 19; and many others have remained in their posts albeit the vast majority of them working from home continuing to provide the public services local residents relied on. Meanwhile, the refuse collection teams had been out collecting an additional 100 tons of household waste every week – which was an increase of about a quarter. He, like many he was sure, was enormously grateful to all of them.
As mentioned by the Chairman, the Leader had had the pleasure of attending the Love Market Rasen Race Day, in partnership with Market Rasen Town Council. It was a great opportunity to celebrate all that was wonderful about the local community whilst joining in the excitement and thrills of a day at the races. Due to Covid 19 all horse racing fixtures across the country had been cancelled until the end of August. Whilst meets had been taking place behind closed doors, he hoped it would not be long before the race course is open to the public again.
The Leader had also attended the online opening of Lieden 400, which was one of the partnership events related to the Authority’s own Mayflower 400 celebrations. He had been tremendously impressed with the virtual tours of the Dutch city and considered there may be some ideas that could be useful to the Council’s own plans for the future.
Most recently, only the previous week, the Leader had enjoyed attending the Lincolnshire Show online. He was confident that we would be able to return to a more normal county show experience next year, and was pleased with the Authority’s efforts to provide a virtual pavilion in a very short timescale, given that the Communications team had been heavily involved in the Local Resilience Forum “Warn and Inform” cell.
At the end of March, the Leader had his first, and what had now become a regular fixture, video teleconference with the Ministerial team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, about the Covid 19 pandemic. These had been a very useful forum for getting the latest information from Local Government and from National Government, providing feedback and dialogue with the Ministry and the Ministers and Senior Civil Servants.
The Leader had also been attending regularly the District Council Network meetings with the Chief Executive, which had had a range of individuals from across Government, the Civil Service, Local Government and the Emergency Response sector, and had proved helpful in understanding the context of this pandemic effect on Local Government.
The Leader had had numerous meetings, all virtual, in relation to his duties to the Council, and made mention of the following: -
· Friday 24 April, a meeting was held with the local Parliamentarian, the Rt Hon Sir Edward Leigh MP, and the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Policy and Resources, Prosperous Communities and Planning Committees, together with the Chief Executive. This was a useful meeting and one that the Leader hoped would be replicated in the future
· Tuesday 19 May, the Leader received the bad news that RAF Scampton would be closed by the Ministry of Defence as an active base. The Council had been working in partnership in recent years for this eventuality, withdrawing Government funding, to existing plans. This work would be intensified in the future as the District moved forward and out of the pandemic.
The Leader had had numerous meetings with Councillors, Officers, stakeholders and the media, he undertook to have further such meetings prior to the next meeting of Council on Monday 7 September.
Chief Executive
The Chief Executive addressed Council advising that much of the last few months had been spent dealing with the COVID response. This had involved many weekly meetings across Chief Executives’ and Leaders, the Strategic Co-ordination Group, DCN, and the East Midlands Council to name a few.
He thanked colleagues for covering the many strategical, tactical and operational groups which had been established. This was the focus of much Officer time and WLDC had played a full role in the LRF response.
Throughout June worked had turned to a recovery scenario, with the Chief Executive chairing the county Resources Cell, charged with looking at the cost of COVID, the cost of recovery and the development of the new normal working environment.
Regular updates had been provided to both employees and elected Members and would continue over the coming months. 17 decisions had been taken under urgent delegated powers in consultation with the Chairmen of the Policy Committees and the Leader of the Opposition. Decisions were publicly available for viewing.
Members were thanked for continuing to undertake Ward visits where appropriate as a step to some sort of return to normal.
The new senior structure had been agreed and was in the process of being implemented. The Chief Executive was pleased to advise that as of Wednesday Alan Robinson would become the Director of Corporate Services, Ady Selby, the Assistant Director of Operations and Commercial Services and Tracey Bircumshaw, the Assistant Director of Finance and Property Services. All three were congratulated. The remaining two posts would be advertised.
The Chief Executive concluded his announcements by paying tribute to all staff for maintaining services through what had been a difficult and unprecedented times.