To receive any communications or announcements from the Leader of the Council.
Minutes:
The Leader reported on the following matters to the Council:
(a) Changes to the Executive, details of which had been appended to the Order Paper, were summarised as follows:
· The Leader would continue to be the lead councillor for housing and community.
· Councillor Joss Bigmore, as Deputy Leader, would become the Lead Councillor for Finance and Planning Policy.
· Councillor Tim Anderson was the Lead Councillor for Assets and Property.
· Councillor Tom Hunt was the Lead Councillor for Planning Development, Legal and Democratic Services.
· Councillor George Potter was now the Lead Councillor for Climate Change and Organisational Development
· Councillor John Redpath was the Lead Councillor for Customer and Commercial Services.
· Councillor John Rigg was the Lead Councillor for Regeneration and
· Councillor James Steel was the Lead Councillor for Environment and Regulatory Services.
(b) Major Incident on 30 November and into 1 December: Water Outage affecting residents living in the GU1, GU2, GU3, GU4, and GU5 postcodes. GBC and WBC teams worked together to respond quickly and kept residents informed via our website and social media channels. Our call centre and well-being teams called almost 1,200 vulnerable residents across the affected areas. The Leader thanked all the staff who stayed late and diverted resources to ensure that this incident was managed effectively.
(c) Applications under the Household Support Fund scheme were now open until 31 March 2023. The scheme provided a grant of up to £400 per household for those in need of support towards the cost of fuel, food and other essential items. Residents can apply online using a new application form on our website, which had been designed to make the application process as quick, easy, and inclusive as possible.
(d) A Christmas Fair would be held at the Hive on Saturday 10 December between 11am to 2pm. There would be Christmas stalls, Santa's grotto, chestnuts on the fire, and music from Get Plucky Ukulele Group and Rhythm of Voice Community Choir.
(e) Gaskin’s free Christmas lunch for the lonely, vulnerable and students in need who live within 10 miles of Guildford. Last year they cooked and delivered 382 meals. With energy costs rising and more families struggling, the organisers were anticipating even more demand this year. All the food had been donated but they still needed volunteers and drivers to deliver.
(f) Festive family trail and competition. The Nutcracker statue trail was another free activity to help bring festive magic to our town centre this year. From 7 December, ten impressive Nutcracker statues would arrive at mystery locations around Guildford. Families and individuals had until 5 January 2023 to follow the trail map, find the Nutcracker statues hidden in shops, and businesses, and spell out the festive word. All correct entries would go into a prize draw. The Leader thanked the businesses who had agreed to host our festive visitors this year and generously donated some fantastic prizes.
(g) This year’s White Ribbon campaign had started on 25 November. The date had been designated by the United Nations as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. As part of 16 days of activities, we were raising awareness of domestic abuse and local support services. We had been running the social media campaign of ‘Show Domestic Abuse the red card’ and the second of two webinars was taking place today at 7pm.
(h) Guildford & Waverley Business Question Time would be held on Monday 12 December 2022 at 5pm at Charterhouse School in Godalming. This was a free networking event for our local business community, the aim of which was to explore immediate concerns in terms of the cost-of-living crisis, energy security, climate change, recruitment, post-Brexit trade and other national and local challenges.
(i) Free Heritage Exhibition at Guildford Museum: ‘Football Stories From the Beautiful Game in Guildford and Beyond’ which charted the history and progress of local football clubs. The Museum was open Wednesday to Saturday, 12noon to 4.30pm.
(j) Consideration was being given to the installation of a 'trim trail' at Shalford Park and feedback was requested by 8 January 2023 on the style and location of this new feature.