Agenda item

This report sets out the impact of the local Tier system, National Lockdown and current position of the Council’s Services.

 

The Council will continue to prioritise service delivery and focus resources as set out previously in the Service Restoration Priorities Reports.

The Watersmeet Venue Manager gave the following report to the Committee:

 

The Covid-19 Impact on services report follows on from the Service Restoration General Update report presented to the Covid-19 Response Sub-committee on 16 November 2020, and provided an update on the current situation regarding the Council’s services and Covid-19 response.

 

The report set out the impact on services and highlighted the additional work and measures put in place to support residents and the Covid-19 response. Appendix 1 itemised each of the Council’s services and the impact each Tier and the current National Lockdown has had. Where it stated BAU (business as usual) the delivery of the service continued, however it was important to highlight that the majority of staff that would normally be based at Three Rivers House continued to work from home.  Naturally, due to the ever changing situation there have been further developments since this report was published and these were highlighted to the Committee.

 

Since the last update in November, Three Rivers has come out of the second national lockdown on 3 December and entered into Tier 2.  The District was then moved to Tier 3 on 16 December and to Tier 4 on 20 December and then on the 5 January 2021 the country entered a third National Lockdown.

 

Moving through the Tier system had generated significant workload for Officers as aspects of services had started and stopped in response to the restrictions and the required support for residents had changed.

 

In response to the second National Lockdown in November a Covid-19 Action Group was established consisting of Officers from Community Partnerships, Leisure, Watersmeet, Regulatory Services Communications and the Customer Services Centre to coordinate tasks across different services utilising the skillset of specific staff.

 

Four Covid Marshals, funded from Central Government Resources, have been employed to engage with the public and encourage general compliance of Covid restrictions focusing on our parks, open spaces and supermarkets. Funding had also been provided for Covid Response officers to support enhanced contract tracing across the county. The recruitment process mentioned for the 3 Officers for Three Rivers had progressed and offers have been made and verbally accepted.

 

Work with Herts County Council, Herts Help and Watford and Three Rivers Trust had continued throughout the tier system and during the National Lockdown for people who are isolating and who are clinically and extremely vulnerable, helping them with getting access to food deliveries, prescriptions and providing wellbeing support.

 

There had been significant disruption to some services and the current status of services was as follows:

 

Leisure/Watersmeet

•           In Leisure, currently parks, open spaces, play areas, car parks and the public toilets within our parks remained open.

•           Skate parks, tennis courts, multi-use games areas and outdoor gyms are all closed as per the Government guidance.

•           Since the report was published, Parkguard have been engaged temporarily to patrol Croxley skate-park in response to Police and Covid Marshal feedback on the continued use of the skate park despite it being closed. 3 hand sanitiser stations have been ordered to be installed at the three of the busiest play areas (Ebury, Leavesden Country Park and Barton Way).

•           Arts on Prescription, a support group, would continue with the next programme starting in March.

•           Volunteering programmes and ‘friends of’ working groups are currently suspended.

•           Leisure centres and Rickmansworth Golf Course are currently closed and we intend to reopen these when restrictions allow. The Council continues to work closely with SLM the Leisure operator.

•           Watersmeet is currently closed following a brief reopening during Tier 2 in December.  Today we submitted an application for £87,500 of support from the Culture Recovery Fund for Watersmeet to be used from April-June 2021.  This was our second funding application.  Successful applicants would be informed by the end of March.

 

Environmental Protection

•           Environmental Protection waste collections had continued and had provided a full service with the exception of a short delay in trade waste collection that was caught up within a few days. 

•           Due to staff self-isolation and Covid 19 cases within the workforce, depot sorting of litter bins had been suspended and an operative had been moved to waste loading.  A street cleanser driver had been transferred to drive for the waste collection team. The number of agency waste loaders had also been increased from 4 to 6.

•           The report set out a stepped approach and provided a contingency plan should further staff shortages occur if the number of Covid 19 cases increase. The 3 main potential issues were, number of HGV drivers available, the number of loaders available and the number of fitters available for vehicle maintenance – which was provided by the maintenance contractor Plantec.

 

Community Partnerships

•           Community Partnerships Anti-social behaviour doorstep visits continued to take place as required during Tiers 2-4 but are currently on hold since the start of the National Lockdown on 5 January.

•           Since the report was published a number of Family Intervention doorstep visits had taken place to ensure support continued for families.

•           Throughout Tiers 2-4 the Community Support Service and Domestic Abuse Support was provided online where appropriate and face to face if necessary. Since the 5 January all indoor visits in centres and homes had stopped with essential face to face contact taking place outside. Since this report was published Herts Mind Network had stated they do not intend to recommence home visits until staff have been vaccinated.

 

Regulatory Services

•           The majority of the services had continued as business as usual with the exception of non-essential site visits which are currently on hold. Since the start of the National Lockdown on 5 January only urgent and essential site visits (including priority enforcement visits) were taking place.

•           Knowledge tests for new taxi drivers continue to be on hold with an ongoing review of the online provision.

•           Parking enforcement is currently suspended during the National Lockdown.

•           Environmental Health Officers provided by Watford Borough Council on behalf of Three Rivers continue to engage with businesses across the District with current focus on supermarkets. These are being assisted by the Covid Marshals mentioned earlier.

 

Other Services

•           Housing services had mainly continued business as usual including rough sleeper visits. Home visits had currently stopped with doorstep visit taking place only when essential.

•           The majority of Electoral Services continued as business as usual and at present the 6 May elections are due to take place, although it was currently unknown what impact the National Lockdown would have on logistics.

•           Revenue & Benefits was experiencing considerable additional work with the processing of grants, although the rest of the service continued as business as usual.

•           Legal and Democratic Services had needed to interpret increased legislation and the courts continue to remain open.

•           The majority of the Finance Service had continued business as usual throughout, with the exception of the Fraud team who were unable to conduct face to face interviews impacting on the recovery of fraudulent payments.

•           A number of tenants had sought rent payment holidays which were being monitored by Property Services.

•           The Customer Services Centre, Economic & Sustainable Development, Corporate Services, Human Resources, Facilities and ICT had continued business as usual with their service delivery.

 

•           Three Rivers House remains closed for staff with the exception of essential visits. The building remains open for use by the Police, Enforcement officers and Covid Marshals.

 

•           CAB staff continue to access the building and are carrying out remote support, but are currently not providing any face to face services to the public.

 

•           Basing House remains open for Rivertech, however the Museum is closed.

 

•           Staff resources are being monitored regularly with several secondments and redeployments in place to support priority services, as well as specific tasks being allocated via the Covid-19 Action group mentioned earlier. The NHS have approached the Council asking for up to 10 staff to provide support for the vaccination programme. A number of staff have volunteered and the NHS are particularly interested in one person who had offered to help at the Lister Hospital.

 

Tier restrictions and the latest National Lockdown are likely to have adverse effects on the local community including those suffering with mental health issues, domestic abuse and those on low incomes. The Covid-19 Action Group, and designated safeguarding leads will continue to work with partners to support those in most need.

 

Finally the Council’s website and social media channels would continue to provide updates and messaging to the local community to help support the Covid-19 response.

 

The following points were raised by Members:

 

Q:  Taxi driver tests were on hold, did this mean they were not driving? 

A:  This referred to the testing of new drivers.  Currently demand was low so this was not having any impact.  The Director of Community and Environmental Services advised they were only aware of two tests on hold.  The taxi drivers would not be driving in the District without having taken the test.

 

Q:  Many emails had been received complaining about people from outside the District driving to and parking in the Aquadrome Car Park.

A:   Car parks were being monitored but they remained open to stop visitors parking in the surrounding streets.  The Director of Community and Environmental Services confirmed that when the car parks were closed people parked immediately outside and inconvenienced local residents.  There were extra patrols of Covid Marshals but they were unable to monitor where every vehicle had come from.  There was more social media messaging and signage being put in place to request that people exercise locally.

 

Q:  What testing protocol is in place within the Council? 

A:  The Council do not undertake repeat tests.  All office based staff are homeworking and only allowed into the office by exception.  There are procedures in place to protect the working environment.   Depot staff are subject to the Government guidelines.  Staff showing symptoms have access to the rapid testing.  Potentially this may be considered for all staff going forwards but was not a requirement at present.  Government guidelines are being followed for testing, isolating and returning to work.

 

Q:  Would the Council manage to spend the grant received to Watersmeet of £175,000 before the end of March?

A:  The Council were on track to have spent the first round of the Culture Recovery Fund by end March.

 

Q:  The accounts state the years’ income for Watersmeet was £190,000 so to get £175,000 was very good?

A:  Turnover/total income pre-Covid 19 was just over £937,000, so was significantly down even with the grant. 

 

On being put to the Committee the recommendations were declared CARRIED by the Chair the voting being by general assent.

 

RESOLVED:

 

Agreed the approach set out in the Covid-19 Restrictions Impact on Services Update Report for adoption.