Agenda item

It was reported to Cabinet that since the outbreak of COVID-19, the council had been responding to the crisis caused by the pandemic. As the number of cases of COVID-19 nationally continued to fall, the government was now taking steps to slowly ease the restrictions in place, the Council now also needed to move both the council and the district towards recovery.

Cabinet would be simultaneously working on Recovery in tandem with the Response phase whilst keeping in mind that the situation had the potential to return to Response at any time if there was a second wave of infections. There was also the likelihood that the Recovery would span other Emergency Planning events including the end of the Brexit Transition Phase and that for much of it, staff and partners would be working remotely. It was also worth noting that the sheer scale and breadth of the social and economic impact caused by these circumstances meant that the district (and the country as a whole) would be entering uncharted territory which was hard to predict where it would end up.

As part of this work, Cabinet had put together a document ‘Supporting Our Communities - TDC’s plan for recovery’. This was a high-level outline of the steps that the Council would take to manage the recovery process. Its focus was around community and organisational leadership. The terms of reference had been developed for each work stream and were attached as annexes to the cabinet report. The other area of focus was the support for the re-opening of the High Street and Beach Management action plans.

Inevitably these plans needed to be adapted to what would be constantly changing circumstances as well as risks and opportunities as they arose. Cabinet would continue to be as collaborative as possible in this exercise. During this crisis the Council had been in discussions with town councils and engaged other elected Members both through the group leaders’ meetings and fortnightly Member briefings.

The following Members spoke under Council Procedure Rule 20.1:

Councillor Garner;

Councillor Game;

Councillor Pugh.

Cabinet noted the proposed approach for the recovery from the consequences of COVID-19.