Issue - meetings

The Chief Operating Officer to present a report which provides an update for January 2021 on the council’s activities both directly in response to Covid-19 and to support recovery and renewal, and seeks approval for recommendations made by the Executive Member for Finance & Performance in November 2020.

Resolved:  (i)      That the contents of the report, and the steps taken to date to respond to the pandemic as set out in Annex 1, be noted.

                   (ii)      That the following recommendations made by the Executive Member for Finance and Performance in November 2020 (as outlined in Annnex 1), be endorsed:

To:

i.             implement a discretionary grants scheme providing support to the businesses outlined and at the levels indicated in the paper, to run until March 2022;

ii.            instruct the Head of Economic Growth to develop more detailed proposals for a business support voucher scheme for consideration at a subsequent Executive Member Decision Session;

iii.          allocate a preliminary budget of £200k from the Additional Relief Grant (ARG) funding to fund future activity aiming to accelerate economic activity during the next reopening; and

iv.          ask officers to bring back a further report to the relevant Executive Member Decision Session to consider amendments to the ARG eligibility criteria.

Reason:     To keep the council’s response to the pandemic under review, and to provide support to York businesses that are affected by the Covid-19 restrictions but not eligible for Local Restrictions Grant funding.

The Chief Operating Officer presented a report which provided an update on the council’s activities in response to Covid-19, both directly and to support recovery and renewal.

The report outlined activities across the three recovery themes - Economy, Communities and Corporate – in the context of the rapid rise of cases in York since December and the national lockdown announced on 4 January.  Full details of activities undertaken and planned to support the city’s economy were attached at Annex 1.

The Director of Public Health gave a further update at the meeting, noting that cases in York had now reached 670.9 per 100,000.  The national and regional rates stood at 654.9 and 338.8 respectively. The focus continued to be on prevention, with testing recently extended to those who were non-symptomatic but could not work from home. It was hoped that the impact of lockdown on case numbers would start to be seen in the next few weeks. 

Representatives of Nimbuscare, the at-scale provider of health services formed of GP practices across York, provided an update on the progress of vaccination in the city and responded to Members’ questions. To date, 12,000 people had been vaccinated and the vaccination of residents and staff in care homes was on track for completion early next week.  From Monday, the Askham Bar site would operate as a national NHS vaccination centre.

Resolved:  (i)      That the contents of the report, the additional information provided at the meeting, and the steps taken to date to respond to the pandemic as set out in Annex 1, be noted.

                   (ii)      That the following recommendations made by the Executive Member for Finance and Performance in November 2020 (as outlined in Annnex 1), be endorsed:

To:

i.             implement a discretionary grants scheme providing support to the businesses outlined and at the levels indicated in the paper, to run until March 2022;

ii.            instruct the Head of Economic Growth to develop more detailed proposals for a business support voucher scheme for consideration at a subsequent Executive Member Decision Session;

iii.          allocate a preliminary budget of £200k from the Additional Relief Grant (ARG) funding to fund future activity aiming to accelerate economic activity during the next reopening; and

iv.          ask officers to bring back a further report to the relevant Executive Member Decision Session to consider amendments to the ARG eligibility criteria.

Reason:     To keep the council’s response to the pandemic under review, and to provide support to York businesses that are affected by the Covid-19 restrictions but not eligible for Local Restrictions Grant funding.