Issue - meetings

The Mayor welcomed Members, Officers and Members of the Public to the Council Meeting at Aintree Racecourse.

The Mayor advised that following discussions with the Director of Public Health it was considered that the current scale of Covid-19 infection in Sefton justified the need to meet in a larger, easier to distance venue such as Aintree Racecourse.

Many Councillors had also expressed concern about their own personal safety and this had contributed to the decision to hold the meeting at Aintree Racecourse.  The Mayor stated that the Director of Public Health had advised her that:

·       There still remained a high rate of infection in Sefton at circa 1,000/100,000 and over 2500 still contracting Covid in the last 7 days

·       There were approximately 250 Council and School staff absent from work because they had Covid. This dramatic increase in rates had been driven by the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant; and that Omicronwas now the dominant strain of Covid-19

·       Thankfully our vaccines were protecting us from severe Covid-19 disease.  However, even vaccinated individuals could catch and transmit Covid-19; and the scale of infections meant that we were still sadly seeing admissions to hospital.

The Mayor continued that she appreciated that there had been some criticism about meetings being held at Aintree, but again the Council would be utilising Government funding for Covid-19 to pay for the room hire. On balance it was believed that we were protecting Councillors, staff and supporting the NHS and our communities by limiting the risks of spreading Covid-19 and she hoped that this decision was understood.

The Mayor indicated that in the usual way she would be obliged if Members would observe social distancing measures and should any Member or officer need to move away from their designated area she kindly requested that a face covering was worn; and that if a Member wished to speak could they please indicate in the normal way and a member of staff would bring a microphone to them.

Finally, the Mayor advised that hand sanitizers were provided for use by attendees; and that she hoped that all attendees had taken a lateral flow test prior to their attendance at the Council Meeting and which had produced a negative result.