The Leader of the Council, Councillor Colin Smith,
attended the meeting to respond to questions from the
Committee. Councillor Smith gave a brief introduction
highlighting the following issues:
-
Covid had dominated the in-tray of every London
Leader since March. Infection rates were being closely
monitored, and in some parts of London there was evidence of the
emergence of a sharp (for London) increase in rates of
infection. Two schools of thought were developing: one that
London should consider an early lockdown all in one go; others felt
that it was still too early to make that call and even if London
were to lockdown depending on the numbers in certain places an
London-wide lockdown may not be appropriate. Before any firm
conclusions were drawn there would need to be further analysis of
data as it posed a fine balancing act between health and wellbeing
and economic considerations,
-
Since the start of the pandemic there had been
a number of meetings with local MPs to
discuss local needs and local policies. There had also been
discussions around where the Local Authority agreed or disagreed
with Government specific policies and nuisances. Regular
meetings had also taken place with London Councils to discuss how
to approach the emerging situation. In addition to this
Ministers’ Seminars had taken place and these afforded the
opportunity for Council Leaders to comment on evolving policies
around a range of issues.
-
The Council’s relentless focus on finance had
been maintained. As a result of this focus over many years
Bromley now found itself relatively well placed to move forward and
focus on the post-Covid recovery. Across the Local Government
Sector Leaders had expressed hope that there would be a favourable
Local Government Financial Settlement to support the
sector.
-
Turning to the Council’s major asset, its
staff, there had been no redundancies to date, no staff had been
furloughed, and in return the performance and loyalty from staff
had been incredible.
-
The Council had 60 staff volunteers in place to
drive the track and trace programme forward in additional to their
substantive role. Bromley had amongst one of the biggest
local track and trace teams in London.
-
The Council was clear about where it was in terms of
its Transformation Programme and a number
of projects had recently been considered by PDS Committees
with further reports expected over the next few meetings.
A number of the decisions would be
influenced by the Chancellor’s Budget, the Autumn Statement
and the Local Government Settlement and it was hoped that there
would be further clarity over the next few months.
Councillor Smith then responded to questions, making
the following comments:
-
Were there a need to live with Covid long-term the
Council would need to react to situations as they arose.
There was a hope and expectation that there would be a return to
some semblance of “normality”, although there was a
recognition that it may take longer than initially anticipated by
many. There was some evidence that the return to schools and
colleges was going some way to developing more “herd
immunity” and there would be a growing general immunity to
infection but there were questions around how long this immunity
may last. In terms of how the Council would deal with a
longer-term situation, at the current time there were too many
unknowns in terms of financial implications to enable firm plans to
be developed. Regular meetings took place between senior
Members of the Council’s Executive and the Director of
Finance in order to ensure that the Council was well placed to
react to issues as they arose.
-
Any decisions around local lockdowns would rest
solely with local Council Leaders and the Government. To date
there had been no contact from the Office of the Mayor for
London. Whilst the Mayor of London had met with a handful of
London Leaders, he was by no means meeting with all London Leaders
and the meetings that had taken place would not reflect the views
and experiences of all 32 London Boroughs.
-
In relation to funding for enforcing compliance with
health regulations, the Council had received £145,000 for
Street Marshalls. Several of the Road Safety and Traffic Team
had been deployed to do some work around marshalling and had
broadly received a good reception in the High Street, although some
visitors to the High Street had been less receptive to the
messages. This work would become increasingly critical over
the next few weeks.
The Committee thanked the Leader for his update and
through the Leader and Chief Officers attending the meeting thanked
all staff for their continued efforts on behalf of the residents of
the Borough.