Deborah's County Councillor Bradgate Villages Monthly Update - December 2020
This is my last report for what has been a very difficult year for us all. At the time of writing, Covid-19 infection rates are dropping in Charnwood and a large portion of this reduction is down to hard work undertaken by the staff and students at Loughborough University. I hope the infection rates continue to drop for the rest of the national lockdown period and, as national restrictions start to ease, we will hopefully be in a position to come out lockdown with the least restrictions in place as possible.
I continue to work from home and all my meetings remain on the virtual platform. This is likely to continue into the New Year and for a few months beyond. There is some good news filtering through that vaccines may be available very soon, and I will be following these developments with interest.
In November, I was due to attend the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Manchester in my role as Lead Member for Children and Families. The conference continued virtually, and I spent three days attending various webinars. It was a positive and enlightening three days and a highlight for me was the session with the Children’s Minister, Vicky Ford MP. She showed her commitment to ‘prevention rather than cure’ and I am hoping for a good result for children in the National Spending Review due at the end of November.
Bradgate Park Parking Proposals; Newtown Linford; Cropston; Anstey
I have mentioned previously that a public consultation is being launched to look at further on-street parking restrictions around the three car park entrances to Bradgate Park. The proposals cover various areas within Newtown Linford, Cropston and Anstey. I have now been advised that the consultation for the whole scheme will be launched on 26th November 2020. All three Parish Councils (PC) have been made aware of the schemes and will be ensuring that residents are also made aware. Newtown Linford and Cropston & Thurcaston PCs supported the proposals, however, Anstey PC did not offer their support. Please make sure that you respond to the consultation, whether you support or object to the proposals, to make sure that we hear the views of as many residents as possible. All the details will be on the County Council website here: https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/have-your-say/current-consultations I will also be sharing information about this consultation on my social media platforms.
Covid-19 Trial for Lateral Flow Tests
I am pleased to say that the government have announced that the Lateral Flow Test will now be available for Leicestershire. The test kits will be sent to Leicestershire after the county was added to the list of trial areas. The county was not included in the first announcement, but following productive discussions held between Leicestershire County Council and the Department of Health and Social Care, they have now been added to the list. It means that the Government will send the council up to 80,000 kits a week as part of its plan to expand asymptomatic testing across the country. The council can draw down from the national supply as needed but is looking to have a stock of 10,000 kits at any one time to deploy rapidly. The council is looking into how the tests will be rolled out.
Extensive clinical evaluation shows lateral flow tests are accurate and sensitive enough to be used in the community, including for those who are asymptomatic. Lateral flow tests are rapid turnaround tests capable of being processed on site without the need for laboratory equipment, with most generating results in under half an hour.
Using lateral flow technology to test asymptomatic individuals with Covid-19 will help identify those who unknowingly have the virus and enable those who test positive and their contacts to self-isolate, which can help drive down the R rate locally and save lives. The R rate is a measure of transmission of the disease so if it is 1.3, this means 10 people will infect a further 13 people. We want this number to be below 1 but in the Midlands it is currently between 1.1 and 1.3 (see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-number-in-the-uk).
Testing is crucial to breaking the chains of transmission of the virus and to support critical industries, key workers and institutions. With lower rates of transmission, those at highest risk from the virus will be more protected and residents will feel more confident in getting back to their day-to-day lives.
Free School Meals
I was delighted the Leader and Cabinet supported my request in October to fund Free School Meals (FSM) for entitled children over the Christmas break. The Council pledged £500k to support FSM until the end of this financial year. This money will support over 12,000 children to ensure that they do not go hungry over the school holidays. Following this decision, the Government announced a £170 million Covid-19 Winter Grant Scheme. This included:
· £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme to support children, families and the most vulnerable over winter
· Holiday Activities and Food programme to be expanded, covering Easter, Summer and Christmas in 2021
· Healthy Start payments set to rise from £3.10 to £4.25 a week from April 20212
This suite of measures represents a longer-term plan to help tackle poor health, hunger and education.
The council’s share of this fund will be approx. £1.5 million and will be used to support our most vulnerable children and families over the winter. The funding will be ring-fenced, with at least 80% earmarked to support with food and bills. The plan was discussed at the council’s cabinet on Friday 20th November and the scheme will be put in place ahead of the end of term in December.
The Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children since 2018, will also be expanded across England next year. It will cover Easter, Summer and Christmas in 2021, and cost up to £220m. It will be available to children in every local authority in England, building on previous programmes. The council ran this program in summer 2019 and it was a very successful scheme.
The Healthy Start scheme payments are also set to increase from £3.10 to £4.25 a week from April 2021. This scheme supports pregnant women or those with children under four who have a low income and are in receipt of benefits to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. This will help people boost the long-term health of their children.
Cropston Road Crossing, Anstey
I have been gathering information from various sources over the past few weeks to try to understand further how we got to the position of a dropped kerb as a crossing facility for the new Barwood housing development. There is a fine line between what is installed and what is needed. There is advice from the Department for Transport that an under-used crossing is more dangerous to pedestrians than having a controlled crossing. I wanted to move forward and see what improvements could be made to what is in place to improve the crossing facility. During the meeting I requested some additional work to be carried out over the next few months. The following has been agreed:
· It was agreed that signage would be added to the area to warn drivers that children are crossing the road in this area; I am pleased to say that this will happen very soon
· It was agreed that a further survey will be carried out to assess the traffic movements and the number of pedestrians crossing the road (likely to be in Spring 2021); I have requested that the whole length of Cropston Road is assessed from the new Jelson’s site to the Nomads, so that we can fully understand how many pedestrians cross this road to access schools/bus stops etc.
· It was agreed at the meeting that the same area above is also assessed to see if the pedestrian movements hit the criteria for a School Crossing Patrol (SCP) to be active in the area. If the criteria are hit, there will then be the issue of finding a person to operate the SCP during school term, but this is likely to be a minor consideration.
In addition, at the meeting, I managed to identify some grant funding available to the Parish Council (PC) to assist with stopping vehicles speeding on this road. It was suggested that the PC could look into purchasing a mobile Vehicle Activation Sign (VAS) that could be moved around the village to try and encourage drivers to change their behaviour and slow down. I will be taking this proposal to the next PC meeting to ask them to consider applying for this grant to purchase a mobile VAS, which uses speed radar technology to identify and log the number of speeding vehicles. I will keep you informed regarding the outcome of this request.
Lord-Lieutenant
On Tuesday 17th November, I attended the Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire’s virtual event to celebrate the achievements of our young people across the city and county this year. Every year, the Lord-Lieutenant's award scheme recognises the efforts and successes of 13-to-19-year-olds.
It was a great evening and congratulations to all the winners and nominees. Hopefully, next year, we will be able to celebrate together in person rather than through a computer screen.
Life-story Work
Precious memories and life-stories of adopted children in Leicestershire are being preserved forever thanks to a specialist worker who supports them and their new parents.
During National Adoption Week in October, the county council took the opportunity to shine a spotlight on some of the specialist support available.
There are 34 children waiting for adoption in Leicestershire, including four sibling groups. The specialist worker’s role involves championing the precious memories and life stories of children by developing life story books and offering extensive support to adopters by explaining these stories.
All families who adopt through Leicestershire County Council are offered one-to-one sessions with the life story support worker, focusing on telling their child’s story. Ongoing workshops continue to grow adopters’ skills and confidence – this can involve navigating tricky parts of their story or learning more about specific pictures or events so that they can answer specific questions for the child. For more information about adoption, visit: www.adoptionleicestershire.com
I wanted to end my last report of the year on a positive note and this life story work was a nice story to share.
We have had a difficult year but there has been some good work completed and I look forward to a brighter new year.
I wish everyone a Happy Christmas and hope we can all spend some quality time with some of our loved ones. It will certainly be a very different Christmas this year, but we must keep everyone safe and well to make sure we are all here next year to celebrate together.
