CLLR GRAHAM HOWE wanted to congratulate officers and executive members for their “dedication and action” during the pandemic.
He praised the efforts during members’ question time at a virtual meeting of Wokingham Borough Council.
“It is three months almost to the day that I was first notified of a Covid-19 case in Wokingham Borough – it has been a long three months,” Cllr John Halsall, the leader of Wokingham Borough Council, said in reply.
“All our officers have been exemplary during this period prepared to turn their hands to anything. The voluntary sector has worked with our officers to achieve the unachievable.
“I am hugely grateful to both.
“Residents have volunteered in huge numbers and largely espoused the conditions which have been forced upon them. There have been innumerable local volunteer groups supporting each other.
“Councillors of all parties have contributed massively to our efforts and suspended political activities, though I note they are creeping back.
“A big big thank you to you all.”
He added: “The impact of COVID 19 on council services has been profound. It has affected all aspects of the Borough. We have focused on the very immediate matters, supporting care homes and working with our valued partners on our community response.
“We have sought to deliver our universal services in the same way as far as possible.”
Other ways in which the council has helped included redeploying staff throughout the council to ensure officers were in the right places, waste collections had been maintained, and road improvements had been made.
“This has included ‘hard to do’ works including Showcase Roundabout. Works started on a programme of seventeen accelerated carriageway resurfacing schemes on 6th April 2020 and should be completed by mid-June. And at the same time, we quickly suspended Civil Parking Enforcement,” Cllr Halsall said.
Other initiatives included keeping country parks open – although car parks had to close during the early weeks.
For day-to-day services: “We are largely paperless and can access most of the information we need electronically. We have only stopped those services such as wedding, citizenship ceremonies and birth registrations where the government has requested that we do so.”
For homeless people, “we acted fast” on providing emergency accommodation he said.
Going forward, he praised the council’s investment in digital technology, and “We’ve also learnt that we are able to flex and adapt fast, and that our vital relationships with key contractors, such as our waste and highways contractors are strong, and have enabled us to keep delivering when some other authorities have struggled”.
The council intends to expand its range of online and telephone-assisted services and ensur reception areas maintain appropriate social distancing measures.
He added: “As we are still very much in the midst of our response, we are not in a position to have identified all the lessons, we will do this in the coming weeks and months.”
Cllr Howe thanks Cllr Halsall for his reply, but warned: “As unlocking and understanding the new normal evolves it would be easy to slip back to old ways and lose momentum in making learnt improvements for all of Wokingham Borough’s residents. What will you be putting in place to avoid any such slippage?”
Cllr Halsall replied by saying that his administration had been in the post for just 12 months, but its can-do attitude has helped.
“We will not go back to our old ways. We will build on this to create a Council where officers are proud to serve our residents, who in turn are proud of their Borough council.
“I am pleased to announce that we have created a new post within the directorate, Keeley Clements, to focus on our resident services and localities, who started this week.”
Cllr Halsall also pledged that the council would build on the co-operation established with the voluntary sector, the GPs and NHS and also with blue light services.
Following on from this, Cllr Diane King asked Cllr Charles Margetts about the community response to Covid-19.
The executive member for health, wellbeing and adult services, said: “I can confidently say that I have been amazed and humbled by the speed and quality of the response the Council and all of its community partners have delivered at this difficult time.
“It is a real credit to Wokingham that we have supported our vulnerable so well and I would like to personally thank all those many people involved.”
This response centred around the One Front Door approach, spearheaded from Citizens Advice Wokingham, and a partnership between The Link Visiting Scheme, Wokingham Foodbank, Wokingham Volunteer Centre and First Days Children’s Charity, among others.
“You find out what a community is really like at times like this,” Cllr Margetts said. “It’s something I’m really proud of.”
