Agenda item - Chair's Communications

45.1    The Chair gave the following communication:

In the interests of keeping this meeting brief – I will keep my communications brief also. However, I cannot ignore one issue and that is – why we are in this room.

While the conservative government declares everyone should work from home, they don't mean that if you're a councillor in England. Every other nation in the United Kingdom has recognised the farce nature of councillors being dragged into council chambers when it is clear the public health risk is high, and that doing so by a virtual meeting is no less effective. But this Conservative government is content on putting us all at risk.

As someone who caught covid-19 last autumn from attending meetings related to my role, let me be clear that the risk is very real. On this committee we have members who are clinically vulnerable and one member who is heavily pregnant. Today she is putting herself and her unborn baby and her other small children at risk because, alongside the Conservative Government putting their fingers in their ears, so are opposition groups here. Ahead of this meeting, I requested that all groups drop to two per group – but this request was refused.

There is a petition put together on change.org by the Association of Democratic Services Officers and Lawyers for Local Government. Because let me be clear - it is not just councillors who are at risk, but our staff too, and on a national level the organisations that represent them are making that very clear. I have tweeted the Jackie Weaver backed petition and I urge you to sign it. 

There is no use pretending that the pandemic is over and doesn't need strong measures to curb it. The more the Government puts in half-baked measures, the longer this pandemic will go on. Learning to live with covid cannot mean ignoring the risks. We have already seen schools in other parts of the country close as they face a shortage of teaching staff, with no plan from government to address this – so the lack of measures is clearly stands to impact education across the country too.” In all settings, for the safety of our children and young people, and their families, I urge stronger measures.

I would like this meeting to be a place where we keep people safe and as a result of opposition councillors refusing to drop their numbers by one I am therefore going to:

·           Only allow one speaker per group per item, alongside any co-optees who wish to speak

·           Limit the length of contributions so they do not go on beyond 5 minutes

·           Ask all officers presenting to be as brief as possible, and no longer than 5 minutes

·           Ask officers responding to questions to be as brief as possible also

If councillors have unanswered questions, then the email addresses of officers are easily accessible to them and I would encourage the use of them ahead of the meeting in future. If you are unsure who to contact, then please do contact Deb Austin who I am sure will be happy to provide you with a response from the relevant officer. 

When we undertake the call over, if you are intending to call an item just so you can abstain could you please indicate that. I expect the fees and charges report today is one of those items, and I am happy if it reduces the length of time we have to spend putting ourselves at risk in this chamber to simply note the abstention rather than hearing the report.