It has been a very busy start to the new year. My diary for 2022 is already very full. There is plenty of exciting work happening at the county council that I am involved in. I hope this will bring much increased funding into Leicestershire to improve the quality of the lives of all our residents.
We started the new year with a surge in the Omicron variant of Coronavirus. The rates in the county hit a peak of just over 2000 cases per 100,000 population in mid-January, a high rate. For comparison, Leicester City cases were at 135 per 100,000 population when they went into their extended lock down back in 2020. Hospital numbers are high as I write this report but 75% of the people admitted into hospital due to Coronavirus had not been vaccinated or not had the full course of three injections. This demonstrates that the vaccination is working. We have been able to avoid another full lock down and keep our economy going, even with the high numbers of cases due to the vaccination program.
I would urge you to take up the vaccination when offered if you haven’t already and continue to limit your contact with other people as much as you can. I am still attending council meetings as the legislation doesn’t allow for virtual decision-making meetings, but I continue to work from home.
The County Council is currently suffering from staff shortages along with many other sectors within the county. There is a web page now set up to provide residents with up-to-date information regarding any changes to services. We will continue to ensure we are able to cover our most critical frontline services, but this does mean there are likely to be delays in other non-critical areas. Over January, I have been highlighting the issues affecting the council services by appearing on TV news bulletins and conducting radio interviews. The main areas affected at the moment are: waste and recycling sites; home to school transport and special educational needs transport services; school food services and a reduction in staff in the customer service centre is causing longer telephone waiting times. There will be regular updates here: https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/popular-now/council-service-updates
Leicestershire Police: Chief Constable
Simon Cole, the Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police has announced his retirement in spring 2022. Simon is the longest-serving chief constable in the UK having taken on the role in 2010. Simon has worked incredibly hard over the last 12 years and it has been a pleasure to work alongside him over the past seven years. I wish him all the best in his hard-earned retirement and now the process of finding his replacement begins.
I have also been working alongside the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Rupert Matthews, over the past few weeks in my role as the Chair of the Police and Crime Panel (PCP) for Leicester. Leicestershire and Rutland. The PCC is setting up a new Ethics and Transparency Committee and I have been involved in the short listing and interview panel. The PCP has two independent members who serve on the panel. Their term in office has ended and I have been leading the shortlisting and interview panel to recruit the two new members.
Greener Leicestershire
The county council aim to plant 700,000 trees over the next four years. Our aim is well under way, and the county council is calling on more members of the public to help support the project by volunteering as tree wardens. There are currently over 87 tree wardens, representing 65 parish councils. They help to organise tree planting in their communities, as well as helping to monitor and care for trees. The tree warden scheme initiative began 30 years ago, but as the County Council steps up its plans to increase tree cover across Leicestershire, a call has gone out for more people to join the scheme – particularly in the areas of Harborough, Hinckley and villages such as East Goscote in Charnwood. Tree wardens can organise tree planting in their village as well as set up woodland areas with support from the County Council. They can also look to create a community orchard. Leicestershire is poor when it comes to good quality hedges. Hedges offer enclosures to land, with hedges consisting of mainly Ash and Elm in Leicestershire. Elm disappeared about 30 years ago and now Ash trees are dying because of Ash Dieback Disease, so there’s a real need for getting more trees planted to replace those that are diseased.
You don’t need to be an expert to become a tree warden – full training is provided, along with a booklet explaining how to plant trees and how to look after them, as well as what rules and regulations to bear in mind when planting trees or cutting them down. For more information about the tree warden scheme and how it could benefit your parish/town council, contact your local tree warden coordinator at: [email protected]
Leicester City Workplace Parking Levy
Leicester City Council are out for consultation on the potential introduction of a workplace parking levy for the city. This levy is to encourage car commuters to consider other modes of transport, and to provide a sustained funding source to implement the sustainable transport measures proposed in the draft Leicester Transport Plan.
The scheme being considered will be similar to the levy in Nottingham city and would mean that employers would be charged a levy on commuter car parking spaces. Any workplace parking levy payments received could only be spent on transport improvements.
The parking levy will be £550 a year per space and any business that has 10 or more parking spaces would have to pay the levy. This includes the NHS (hospitals), schools and colleges, and GP surgeries.
This could affect many of the villages surrounding the city boundaries, including Anstey in my division. The village could suffer from dispersed parking in the area by workers trying to avoid paying the levy. I would urge people to respond to the consultation by the deadline date to have your say.
The formal consultation is currently available here: https://consultations.leicester.gov.uk/sec/wpl/ and the closing date is 13th March 2021. If taken forward, the workplace parking levy will require approval by the Secretary of State for Transport. Workplace parking levy receipts would contribute to delivery of the Leicester Transport Plan projects post 2024.
Fostering
Maybe you are looking for a change of lifestyle this year? Looking for a change of career? Have you ever thought about fostering?
An appeal has been launched to find people who are willing to ‘foster without having to say goodbye’ in Leicestershire. There has been an increase in the need for long-term foster carers for primary school aged children in Leicestershire. More children have entered the care of Leicestershire County Council over the last two years. There are now 126 children aged five to nine in care in the county - up by 15% since 2018.
Long-term fostering means that the child will still remain in care but will be able to stay with their fostering family until they reach adulthood. Their ages vary from four to 14 and some may still have contact with their family. They will, however, have the security of being part of a caring foster family and a sense of belonging - and the foster carers continue to receive the ongoing support from the local authority. Foster carers don’t need specialist knowledge. Simple things such as knowing who is picking them up from school and having a clean uniform could make such a big difference to a child.
Foster carers must be over the age of 21 and have a spare room in their home. To find out more, visit www.fosteringleicestershire.com or call the Fostering Team for an informal chat on 0116 305 0505. You can also join the council’s next virtual ‘Find Out About Fostering’ event. All information will be on the council’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fosteringleicestershire and the next two events are being held on 3rd February 2022 and 24th February 2022 starting at 6.30pm.
