To invite Cabinet Members to provide a brief update on matters concerning their portfolio.
Minutes:
The Cabinet Member for Children’s services, Education and Skills advised that in the last 7 days 10 instances of positive Covid tests had been in schools, a total of 403 students and 16 staff were currently isolating on the Island. Every incident had been dealt with by Public Health England and the schools had communicated information and undertook home learning.
He highlighted the priority schools building two programme, which had delivered schools such as Christ the King, Gurnard and Queensgate. There was currently ongoing eight primary schools being worked on up to the value of £21.6 million.
It was advised that due to new government grants there will be no children or vulnerable families on the Island that will go without meals this Christmas and in February half term 2021, the money would be distributed in the right way.
The Cabinet Member for Environment, Heritage and Waste Management advised that work had continued on unadopted roads, he thanks all local members and town and parish councillors who had attended meetings to move this forward.
He thanked all Amey staff for their commitment to ensure waste collections were achieved.
The Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Digital Transformation advised that regulatory services were under huge pressure due to Covid, a lot of work was taken up with regulations, business as usual had been put back, some issues around food safety were highlighted, conversations with the Food Standards Agency had taken place and they acknowledged the commitment to the standards of the team.
He also acknowledged the bereavement team and all the hard work they had undertaken especially during recent times, he raised concerns that people needed to be adhere to social distancing and wearing of face covering guidelines during funerals at the crematorium; it was acknowledged that this was a difficult time for people, although it was important guidelines were followed to protect residents and staff.
The Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing provided an update on the recent consultation on the White paper, a briefing had been provided to members and feedback had been collated and included in the response to government. The response had also been sent to the Islands MP, requesting the Island retain what we have now to reduce the impact on green field sites.
The Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Business Development advised that since the purchase of Venture Quays jobs had been promoted in one of the factory buildings, the barracks had also been used as a film set. He also promoted the Island gift card scheme.
The Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources thanked the Contact Centre for all the good work they had achieved.
The Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Covid-19 Recovery highlighted the level of strategic risks identified in the quarterly report. The impact of Brexit arrangements on the Island economy were still unknown and the current financial resources, the overspend had reduced to below eight million, however reductions needed to be made with the least impact on providing services. The main risk was how to prepare for the next financial year which had commenced and was considered a challenge.