Today was our second Full Council session during lockdown, with all councillors taking part via Zoom. We are getting used to this new way of conducting council businesses and the fact that Nottingham citizens can watch a live stream of this important meeting is a positive. Citizen and councillor questions are an important part of Full Council, allowing citizens, back bench councillors and opposition parties to ask questions of the council leadership in an open forum. In answer to questions I spoke numerous times today about the need for further Government funding not just to cover the budget gap left by Covid, but to also undo the harm that austerity has had on our city.

Looking after the city’s most vulnerable people is a huge part of what we do as a council and our adult and children social care provision accounts for around 80% of our budget. Today I praised the staff of the social care teams who have risked their own lives day after day providing vital services for citizens but acknowledged that we can’t go on as we are. Before the pandemic struck social care was drastically lacking a national strategy, despite Government long promising one. And it’s not just social care that is suffering, many vital services across the council and key worker jobs are in jeopardy if the Government does not rethink its approach to funding Local Government.

Today saw the launch of The Nottingham Board for Culture and Creativity. Known as The Nottingham Project, this initiative will harness the power of culture, creativity, the arts, music and sport on a decade-long mission to revitalise Nottingham’s creative sector which has been significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. A number of organisations in the city will sit on the board including the council, both universities and Nottingham BID. The newly formed Board will be chaired by Greg Nugent Director of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee and BAFTA award winning actress Vicky McClure is joining as vice chair, both fantastic advocates for Nottingham.

You can find out more at ​www.thenottinghamproject.com or by following @TheNottmProject on Twitter and @TheNottinghamProject on Instagram and Facebook.

Keeping our city and our neighbourhoods clean and well maintained remains a key priority for the council and while it has been incredibly difficult and challenging, it’s clear the street scene teams have done a fantastic job keeping on top of the bulk of the work during the lockdown.

Each area is now developing a Covid recovery plan to help focus available resources on priority tasks and to tackle the backlog in grounds maintenance work. I know that we have a great network of Clean Champion volunteers and many other willing hands across this city and we are looking at how to coordinate and encourage this support further with citywide action planned for the autumn. We remain focused on our Clean City priorities and with your support I am sure we can get all the city back to a standard we’re all proud of!

As the lockdown restrictions are reduced, leisure and retail open up and more people start to return to places of work, it is inevitable that people will find themselves in situations where the two metre rule can’t always be abided by and I am pleased to see an increasing number of people wearing face coverings in the city and when on public transport. COVID-19 can be spread by people who do not have symptoms and do not know that they are infected. That’s why it’s important for everyone to wear cloth face coverings in public - by wearing a mask you are protecting others and you are being protected when others do. 

When you wear a face covering make sure you:

• Fully cover your nose and mouth
• Don't touch the front of it
• Wash your hands before & after putting it on or taking it off
• Wash the face covering regularly with your normal laundry

For more information visit Government guidelines: how to wear and make a cloth face covering

As more people start to need to get safely around the city, I am pleased to see that the tram tracks works in the city centre have been completed ahead of schedule and the service across the full network resumes tomorrow. Whether walking, cycling, travelling in vehicles or on public transport during the coronavirus outbreak please do adhere to Government guidelines for safer travel

Are you a community group? Are you running sessions for kids this summer? Do you need help finding venues, food or risk assessment guidance? Nottingham City Council is working with community organisations and charities to create a list of all the activities taking place this summer. We can match community groups to organisations offering venues, food and guidance.

Also, to help parents find activity sessions, all these activities will be published on the www.AskLion.co.uk website.

So if your group is planning to provide any type of children’s activities over the summer, please complete this form or email [email protected] by Monday 20th July 2020 so that we can be in touch with opportunities to join up.