Agenda item

The Chairman wished all Members, Officers and residents a Happy New Year.

The Chairman thanked the Specialist – Democratic Services who was currently redeployed to project manage a vaccination centre for all her help and support particularly during the pandemic when Council meetings were being held remotely.  He also extended his thanks to her colleagues in Democratic Service for all their support. 

The Chairman invited the Chief Executive to give an update on the Council’s response to the pandemic.  The Chief Executive reminded members that the Council had committed to do all that it could to support its communities and businesses through this crisis.  He said that staff throughout the authority had consistently risen to this challenge in the phases of the pandemic and had carried out whatever was needed to be done regardless of their normal role and rank in the organisation and in many cases despite their commitments outside of work.  The Council had also sought to maintain business as usual as far as possible and apart from the services that have had to close, the Council had largely achieved this and staff had delivered the Council’s response to the pandemic on top of continuing to deliver the other services and priorities of the Council.  However, the Council was now at a point where it could not continue to maintain business as usual over the next few months and some areas of work may have to stop or be delayed.  He advised that supporting the vaccination programme had become a priority for the organisation and at the current time approximately 140 staff were committed to supporting the vaccination programme and the rapid testing site undertaking various roles such as project management, traffic marshalling, meeting and greeting and administration.  He referred to the NHS being under extreme pressure and that any help the Council could give was valued and feedback from the NHS locally had been very positive about the support and contribution the Council was making.  It was envisaged that the Council’s commitment at the current scale would be for up to 2-3 months to enable the vaccine programme to get fully up and running and for other support to be mobilised. 

The Chief Executive also reported that the Council was continuing to support businesses and were committed to getting support grants out as soon as possible to support their survival and to help recovery of the South Somerset economy.  The Council also continued to carry out a vast amount of work to support the vulnerable with its partners by working to ensure that all those that were homeless in the first pandemic remained housed, working with those facing hardship who need to isolate through isolation payments and increasing support to those many people facing hardship in particular young families and young adults.  Work was also being undertaken around test and trace, enforcement and supporting containment of the virus as well as recovery.

In conclusion, the Chief Executive praised staff for their total commitment, flexibility and work in supporting residents, communities and businesses during the pandemic.

The Chairman also paid tribute to SSDC staff for their exceptional hard work, resilience and flexibility.