Several meetings cancelled as council concentrates on pandemic

A full council meeting was due to take place on Thursday, January 21, but like several other meetings which were due to be held, it has been cancelled as the authority continues in emergency mode.

As Wales entered its third period of lockdown on Sunday, December 20, 2020, a couple of meetings had already fallen by the wayside as the country braced itself to deal with the second wave of Covid-19.

This means that for now, the county council will be concentrating on only the most vital services, and staff will not be available to discuss issues with councillors as they normally would.

Clerking staff may also be re-prioritised to other duties.

In a joint statement, Powys County Council leader, Councillor Rosemarie Harris and Chief Executive, Dr Caroline Turner, said: “Our public services are facing unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic and we are extremely concerned about the wellbeing and resilience of our staff, who continue to step up to the mark under difficult circumstances.

“We do not want to be in the position where key council services cannot be provided because of the increasing pressure that Covid-19 has on our workforce.

“We have therefore reviewed and revised our business critical activities.

“We are also supporting Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) with the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccination programme across the county.”

Meetings of the county council’s Gold Command have been ramped up and are now chaired by Nigel Brinn, Director of Environment and Economy.

Mr Brinn, has taken over the role after Vanessa Young, the former Director of Transformation and Resources, left the authority last November.

This committee oversees the council’s strategy to navigate through the pandemic.

Another committee, Silver Command, looks after the day to day running of services.

The county council first invoked business continuity mode on March 23 as the UK entered its first lockdown.

For a six-week period all meetings were cancelled and started again by remote attendance using Microsoft Teams, from May 5, 2020,

Meetings were kept to an hour and were broadly to scrutinise the council’s response to the pandemic.

In June 2020, councillors started asking for longer meetings, looking at a broader range of issues.