Minutes:
The Leader of Council made the following statement:
It is now eight months since we had the first outbreak of Coronavirus almost to the day. Since mid-September the cases in Wokingham have been rising. Sadly, also deaths are rising. The hope that we would be able to return to normal for Christmas is fast receding.
Our policy is to ensure as far we can to remain in Tier One. This is consistent with our neighbours notwithstanding press reports to the contrary. We believe that Tier One gives our businesses the best chance to recover and allows for our residents to lead as full a life as possible.
Coronavirus is transmitted by contact or near contact. If we can inculcate a permanent behavioural change then we can slow the rate of increase and reduce it. Your Council is doing what is within its power to do so.
We are working with our care homes to keep them safe. Again, we are at odds with Government policy in that we will not be dedicating a care home to Covid patients but are insisting on positive evidence of Covid free status. So, the Tower beckons me again.
We are asking our schools to help us by championing the cause. If we can recruit every school child as an evangelist, then the message will get into homes as it is in the homes where it is believed that most transmission occurs. Schools can also help by ensuring that when children leave school settings that the children remain separated and that parents picking them up do not mix.
Our University has not suffered as other universities from the return of students by the exercise of careful and responsible control.
Our trace system is now working well and this week we have started door knocking. We will be auditing our commercial and recreational premises to ensure the proper application of QR codes and adherence to regulation. This week we fined various establishments for non-observance.
We will be launching a scheme of community champions and marshals to lead by example, spread the word and provide factual information about the impact of the virus across the Borough. We are calling upon you, as Councillors, to join this initiative and we will arm you with all the stats, advice and comms messaging you need to disseminate through your networks on a weekly basis.
Fortunately, our residents are discerning and sophisticated who in the main are observing the rules and understand our difficulties. These programmes and more have had an effect. I am nervous to say that the curve is decelerating and flattening off. My nervousness is as I do not want to tempt fate but there are very cautious signs for optimism.
I appreciate that everyone is tired, and it has been going on a long time, but sadly it will go on for much longer. Whilst there is energy going into a vaccine, it is not successful and if it were it would be six months before it can be relied upon. So, we as a Borough and Borough Council must plan for the winter and spring and be in hope that next summer we will return to normal – if we can remember what that is.
It is vital that our resources both human and financial are directed to alleviate need and are not frittered away by unnecessary work or tasks. We still have an obligation to balance the budget and it is still expected that we will not be fully compensated by central Government for all Covid related expenditures and losses.
I ask all Councillors to help in this. We will not be able to do everything we have been doing, for example residents may have to live with unkempt hedges, uncut verges or a pothole. Councillors will not be able to rely upon the level of attention that they have been used to receive.
Having said that we have been at pains to reintroduce the democratic processes as soon as possible and I point out to the naysayers that some of our neighbours have yet to have a full council meeting and many of our neighbours are still working to a scheme of delegation. It could be said of Wokingham that politics has returned with a vengeance, both in the second and third estates.
Our task is now to ensure that every resident is safe, secure and not isolated. The key is to guarantee that everybody has a warm home, and they have food and medicines they need. This administration has worked very hard to ensure that the homeless in the Borough are very low and to ensure that those who are homeless are looked after. We have housed all the rough sleepers except one who insists that he prefers not being housed.
We will do the same with poverty, especially food and fuel. We are determined to eliminate poverty in the Borough.
It is extremely important throughout this emergency that our residents have confidence in the Council. Statements that there are “6,300 children in poverty and rising” and that there are “one in six children living in poverty” in the Borough we do not believe to be accurate or responsible. The indexes based on “housing costs” compared to median income have less to do with poverty and more to do with house prices and the structure of employment in the Home Counties.
Poverty measured by reference to the median income will by definition always be there. We need to work with a definition of absolute need specifically with reference to hunger and warm homes. It is not a position of virtue signalling but of practical help.
The Borough is measured by ONS in the index of multiple deprivation as being the lowest after Hart, which is a District, in the table and the disparity between the highest Blackpool and Wokingham is huge. We enjoy and have enjoyed the lowest funding of any Unitary for many years consequently. It is inconceivable that we are the second to lowest in the index of multiple deprivation and that there are 6,300 children in poverty and rising or one in six.
Having said that, one vulnerable person, child or family is too much. And this is an area that I am taking very seriously. Especially so, in the light of the impact of Covid.
Our model has been for the Council to work with the voluntary sector using the CAB as the front door. We also work with the NHS and our practices around the Borough. We get the best when we work with our partners and we do not plough our separate agendas; otherwise it’s confusing for our residents.
The Executive, CLT and the voluntary sector will create the architecture for this important piece of work; both the Executive and I will be intimately involved. We must clearly identify where there exists need in the Borough so that we can tackle the root cause of that need and support it until we have done so. I will consult with the Leader of the Opposition and keep other Group Leaders appraised of our progress.
We shall hold special Executive meetings to authorise the strategy and expenditure as we go along as this exercise must be at pace.
As for this half term, I am extremely grateful to all the restaurants, shops and pubs who have extended their services for free or subsidised school meals and to the food banks and voluntary sector partners. The pressure for the Council to extend food vouchers came after it was feasible to undertake this through schools. The Council would have had to act unilaterally without the appropriate notice or case being made in the Executive. This could have resulted in another expensive call-in.
I want to effectively plan for the coming months and deeply understand poverty in this Borough and the causes of poverty. I am also confident that we can more fully meet the spirit of the Government’s National Food Strategy.
It must be remembered that although the current publicity is being given to free schools meals, the biggest cohort of the vulnerable are likely to be the old where we may be required to shield again depending on Government Policy. It is this cohort, children and any others, whom we will be addressing in our Poverty Strategy.
Finally, please help me to help you. Those on this call are Councillors, the press and interested members of the public. What you do and say will have an enormous impact on public behaviour towards this virus. Please do not make things up because it is politically expedient or makes a good story. To get through this successfully residents must have confidence in the Council and the press. Residents must feel that we are doing our best to keep everyone safe, secure and happy. Residents must be able to rely upon these rules and those who propagate them.
The key rules are:
Thank you very much for listening, keep safe and become an evangelist to the cause.