Agenda and minutes

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Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

None were received.

2.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

Minutes:

County Councillor Erica Lewis declared a non-pecuniary interest for Item 4 – Update on Lancashire's response to Covid-19, as she was the Leader of Lancaster City Council and its Covid response.

 

County Councillor David Whipp declared a non-pecuniary interest for Item 4 – Update on Lancashire's response to Covid-19, as he was Deputy Leader of Pendle Borough Council and leader of its Covid response.

3.

Minutes of the Meeting held on 13 November 2020 pdf icon PDF 331 KB

Minutes:

Resolved: The minutes from the meeting held on 13 November 2020 were confirmed as an accurate record.

 

4.

Update on Lancashire's Response to Covid-19 pdf icon PDF 21 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed to the meeting County Councillor Keith Iddon, Deputy Leader & Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport; County Councillor Shaun Turner, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing; County Councillor Graham Gooch, Cabinet Member for Adult Services; County Councillor Phillippa Williamson, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools; Angie Ridgwell, Chief Executive & Director of Resources; Stephen Young, Executive Director of Growth, Environment, Transport & Community Services; and Josh Mynott, Democratic and Member Services Manager.

 

At the September 2020 meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee the committee received a presentation on Lancashire's response to Covid-19. It was agreed at the time that a further update would be presented at the January 2021 meeting.

 

Each Cabinet Member delivered an update to the Internal Scrutiny Committee on what had been happening in their own portfolio area during the pandemic and thanked all Lancashire County Council staff for their hard work and dedication during the pandemic.

 

Regarding the Highways Team, all services were now being delivered, some working methods had changed and changes had been made to keep services going. Recently Lateral Flow Testing had been introduced at the depots and workshops to identify staff with Covid symptoms. The Fleet Workshop had worked hard to keep all the vehicles out and the Grit Teams had been working around the clock since Christmas to keep the roads clear. Due to the heavy rain extra gully cleaning vehicles had been brought in.

 

Comments and questions raised were as follows:

 

·  There was concern about secondary routes not being gritted. It was pointed out that it had been a difficult year with the weather but secondary routes were important. The Highways Team served the public as best it could and when the team was able to it would clear and grit secondary routes.

·  A question around excessive exclusion zones outside some Covid test centres was raised The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport informed the committee he would look at this and report back to members.

 

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing explained that cases of Covid infections in young people was at its highest point since the start of the pandemic. The main areas of exposure were in health care, shops and workplaces. The police were being firmer with fines for people not obeying the rules. The NHS were being supported by local authorities in the distribution of vaccines and mass vaccination had begun. Vaccinations in all care homes in Lancashire would hopefully be completed by Sunday 24 January 2021 and all over 50's would hopefully be vaccinated by the middle of March 2021. 24,000 people a week were currently being tested in Lancashire. Lancashire County council had applied for military support to help with the testing.

 

Comments and questions raised were as follows:

 

·  Members stated how pleased they were with the performance in delivering the vaccine in Lancashire. This was down to good collaborative working across the local authorities and different organisations including NHS partners and voluntary partners.

·  There was concern about vaccine supplies  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 23 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This report presented provided information on the single combined work programme for all of the Lancashire County Council scrutiny committees.

 

Requests for future items to be considered for the work included the following:

 

·  How Lancashire County Council was planning for recovery in terms of the economy and social aspects.

·  The welfare and wellbeing of Lancashire County Council staff and how they were being supported.

·  An update on how Lancashire was meeting its low carbon targets.

·  How Lancashire County Council was dealing with drainage issues.

 

Resolved: The Internal Scrutiny Committee noted the single combined work plan presented.

 

6.

Urgent Business

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency. Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member's intention to raise a matter under this heading.

Minutes:

There were no items of Urgent Business.

7.

Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee will be held on Friday 5 March 2021 at 10:00am

 

Minutes:

The next virtual meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee would take place on Friday 5 March 2021 at 10.00am.