To receive any statements by the Leader of the Council, Executive Members and Deputy Executive Members.
In accordance with Procedure Rule 4.2.23 the total time allocated to this item shall not exceed 20 minutes, and no Member shall speak for more than 5 minutes
Minutes:
John Halsall – Leader of the Council
The senseless stabbings in the Forbury Gardens, Reading underline the fragility of life. One of the victims was a very popular Holt schoolteacher, James Furlong. It is difficult to find words to console in such dreadful circumstances. It is impossible to understand the motive for such actions. Thanks God for our emergency services.
James was a wonderfully talented and inspirational Head of History, Government and Politics at the Holt School in Wokingham. He was a very kind and gentle man. He had a real sense of duty and cared for every one of his students. He truly inspired everyone he taught with his passion for the subject and his dedication. He was determined that our students would develop awareness of global issues and, in doing so, would become active citizens and have a voice.
It is also very sad that James Box died suddenly last Monday evening. He represented Westcott Ward on Wokingham Town Council. My heart goes out to his wife and children.
I thank God that we have been spared the worst of the virus and it now seems to be at bay. Thanks also to you for helping your neighbours and heeding Government advice. Thanks to the Officers and volunteers who have been so dedicated, flexible and hard working. We are very lucky to live in such a great community. However, the coronavirus is still with us. It has the capability to kill whilst there is no vaccine. So, please resist the temptation to believe that it is over. Stay distant from one another and stay at home as much as possible.
The Borough Council is honing its outbreak plans which include prevention, effective tracking and tracing and outbreak management plans. We will be continuing with our measures to protect the vulnerable from coronavirus and, at the same time, progressing our recovery without creating the need for extra resources, conscious of the need to balance the Budget. Staff have shown their flexibility and willingness to work within this envelope. I ask all Members to be cognisant of this, not to create non-essential demand and to work through Executive Members. Using our resources wisely will save lives.
Your Council is dedicated to providing the best services and support we can give to our residents. Within the Borough, we are anti-racist, promote equality and celebrate diversity. We can and will do better on each. Stay alert and stay safe.
John Kaiser – Executive Member for Finance and Housing
Financially, councils across the UK have been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, some councils would be considered to be in the unenviable position of declaring bankruptcy, or very close to it. Fortunately, Wokingham Borough Council is not in that position, even as the lowest funded unitary authority. Years of careful management by Conservative administrations means that our reserves are better than most, being rated the 10th highest unitary authority in the country. That said, most of the councillors here would also be aware that we have incurred expenditure and loss of income that already exceed the Government funding received so far to the tune of £6m, which will need to be funded by our reserves. This is, of course, an estimate and the impact could be worse.
We are still assessing the likely cost of the pandemic and, even with the Government support, the Council will have to call upon its reserves to a sustainable degree. How sustainable will depend on the outcome which no one can predict with any accuracy at the moment. The increasing weekly cost and the Borough taking on additional responsibilities such as track and trace, the policing of social distancing and ensuring that businesses follow Government guidelines, all make it even more difficult.
Interestingly, our reserves prior to the pandemic stood at less than one month’s Council Tax. Even as I stated, our reserves are considered as prudent and more than adequate for councils of our size and level of responsibility. It would not take long with the current level of cost to use up these resources. One stark statistic is that the Council was responsible for the care of some 1,800 people. This has ballooned to 5,000 people.
The Council is currently working on a recovery plan as we come out of lockdown, which will mean assessing the situation. The recovery plan will also look to rebuild our reserves over a number of years to ensure that the Council is financially sound, prepared to meet the challenges of increasing demand and cost going forwards. On the matter of reserves, they are like a fire extinguisher. You use them when your house is on fire and, I can tell you, our house is currently burning. These are tough, sad and emotional times. It is the residents’ money and, along with Government grants received, it is there to support the community, which has been done in a controlled and accountable way. We have used the money to support residents in their time of need.
Working as a team, we will pull through this. All the things the Parish, Town and Borough Councils have done to support the residents and the actions of the voluntary sector have helped to minimise the impact on the most vulnerable in our community. The fight continues and we are not out of the woods yet.
Charles Margetts – Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Services
I wanted to pick up on a couple of points raised earlier. We talked about the Pillar 2 test tracing results being released last Friday. I want to reiterate to Members how unhappy we are to be continuously blind-sided by Public Health England. We have raised these comments firmly with our local MPs and complained strongly about this. If they want us to take responsibility for managing Covid-19 locally, we have to have the correct information. Otherwise, I just wanted to briefly refer Members to the Council-wide Track and Trace management plan which was released in public last week. The plan is 114 pages and covers every outcome that may happen when we get further Covid-19 cases in the community and how they will be managed. If anyone has concerns, questions or comments, please email me directly.
Pauline Jorgensen – Executive Member for Highways and Transport
I wanted to answer the question I was asked earlier. I have found the email from Officers relating to disabled parking bays in Wokingham. In Broad Street one disabled parking bay was removed due to Covid-19 and we are looking at whether we can tweak the measures to re-provide that space. In Rose Street there were three spaces removed but there are sufficient Blue Badge parking spaces in the car park adjacent to Rose Street. In addition, the Rose Street spaces associated with the Methodist Church, which is currently closed for services, are available. In Peach Street, no bays were removed and all three bays are available. In Denmark Street, no bays were removed and all four are available. In addition, Blue Badge holders are able to park on single and double yellow lines for up to three hours provided they do not obstruct the flow of traffic. For example, there is space for four disabled vehicles on yellow lines in Rose Street.