Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

Local authorities are usually required to hold public meetings in person, but the Government has granted new powers to allow them to be held remotely using video conferencing.
Internal meetings between Fenland’s officers and councillors are already being held remotely in light of social distancing requirements, but now virtual public meetings that are compliant with national legislation.

The Planning Committee will be the first council committee to meet virtually, using the video conferencing app Zoom – which will also allow members of the public to make representations where necessary.
The meeting will be at 1pm on Wednesday, May 6, and will also be cast to the viewing public via the Council’s YouTube channel
(www.youtube.com/user/FenlandCouncil). 

Anyone wishing to speak on a planning application must register by emailing memberservices@fenland.gov.uk by 12noon the day before the meeting. However, speakers are encouraged to register as soon as possible so the Council can test their ability to access the meeting in advance.

To keep the length of virtual Planning Committee meetings manageable, meetings will contain a reduced number of agenda items and the Council will be holding three additional virtual Planning Committee meetings in quick succession – at 1pm on May 7, 13 and 20. There will also be a virtual Cabinet meeting at 2pm on Tuesday, May 12.

Leader of Fenland District Council, Cllr Chris Boden, said: “The ongoing coronavirus crisis has led to a great deal of change for all of us in the way we live and work. As a Council we have been keen to resume public meetings to ensure we, as elected members, can continue to represent our residents as best we can.

“Embracing digital technology will help us to maintain local democracy and allow key decisions to be made while remaining open, transparent and accessible to the public.”

Cllr Dee Laws, the Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning, added: “The Council has still been receiving a number of planning applications in recent weeks. In order to process these as effectively and efficiently as possible, we needed to ensure that the online meeting platform we used could be accessed by the public, show presentations and planning documents, enable councillors to declare interests and record votes and meets the national legal requirements for public meetings. It has been a challenge but we’re ready for the first in series of virtual Planning Committee meetings to begin next week.”

The Council plans to run further virtual meetings over the coming weeks.
Further information on these will be published in due course online at www.fenland.gov.uk/localgov

Below Planning Agenda @ Fenland District Council for Wednesday May 6th.
Further details on individual applications can be found by downloading the pdf @
Click Here

Along with several other organisations, individuals and neighbours – we are doing our little bit.
Most of the Prescription/Medicine deliveries has become nice and slow which is good news for us.

Today I only delivered two prescritions
(I only go out once a week to do this) – Another run will be done on Friday by a different NHW coordinator.

At 11:30 this morning I was very pleased to see that the town centre was very quiet – this is the first time I have witnessed this. Those at the Co-Op were queing as per the rules.

Of course you could take Cllr Eamonn Dorling’s lead as to self protection!!!

Fraudsters use Covid lockdown to scam motorhome buyers
The Guardian, 04/05/2020
Fraudsters are flooding online auction sites with thousands of fake listings for campervans and motorhomes, using the lockdown to trick people into handing over cash for vehicles they have not seen. An investigator behind an anti-fraud group set up to try to stop the criminal gangs that target vehicle buyers told the Guardian he has never seen so many fraudulent vehicle listings appear on eBay and other sites in such a short space of time. Fraudsters use fake listings copied from legitimate adverts to attract buyers, then tell them that they will deliver the vehicle if they put the money into a holding account.

Pensioner ‘scammed into leaving bank card on doorstep’
BBC News, 04/05/2020
Fraudsters stole from a pensioner’s bank account after persuading him to leave a card and PIN on his doorstep due to the lockdown, a court has heard. Police claimed he was targeted along with another 70 elderly people in a scam involving callers posing as detectives probing bogus crimes. John Ward from Belfast, appeared in court on charges connected to the investigation. He is charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and blackmail. It is alleged that, along with others, Mr Ward pretended to be from the police fraud squad when contacting an 82-year-old man in south Belfast last month. The court heard that within an hour of the pensioner being contacted, he had left bank cards and details on his doorstep, to comply with social distancing because of the Covid-19 crisis.

Mr Nigel Sutton 8517
Cyber Protect Officer
Serious & Organised Crime (Intelligence and Specialist Crime Department)

Publishing CORVID-19 information and statistics can be very difficult.
I only pass on from official communications or Government updates which I receive.
Councillors in other Fenland area’s are doing their best, with good intentions to keep their communities informed, but we have to be careful of where the information is coming from and one or two have got into hot water over it.

What I can tell you is that from the ‘Office of National Statistics’ – 1 person has died in PCH that lived in Whittlesey.
From the official source at PCH – there are currently 2 people on ventilators and 4 others in wards, that come from Whittlesey area, that was current as of Friday.

With National cases ‘appearing’ to be falling, I/we are getting reports that here in Whittlesey an increase in those who maybe have had CORVID-19 is coming to light.
Whittlesey has several residents in PCH and at least 2 are on a ventillator.
My reports are that there are still too many people going about.
The Police reports say otherwise – so maybe I am getting it wrong.
Our Care Homes, I understand now have reported cases of CORVID-19

Please stay at home unless you have something urgent to do,
that you cannot get help with.

I’ve spoken to a representative from the National Lottery this morning and she asked me to give you the following information regarding the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) and their response during Covid-19. Please see information provided below:

• The sole focus of NLCF resources is on responding to the Covid-19 crisis and priorities have now changed to:

• Organisations supporting people who are at high risk from COVID-19
• Organisations supporting communities most likely to face increased demand and challenges as a direct result of COVID-19
• Organisations with high potential to support communities with the direct and indirect impact of COVID-19

• Our larger (Reaching Communities) grants will be refocused on offering organisations up to 100k funding for up to 6 months – we won’t be offering multi-year funding at this stage
• The grant can cover delivery (crisis and recovery) and/or Core Costs
• The assessment and decision making process will be much quicker – its early days but confident it will be a few weeks as opposed to the standard RC timeframe
• Awards for All is open for Covid-19 related grants under £10k again for up to 6 months.  The turnaround time for decision-making has been significantly reduced.
• We have now updated our website –
  https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/reaching-communities-england
• We are being flexible with existing grants so grant holders have the ability to repurpose their funding to respond to the current climate and critical local needs or extending deadlines etc.  We have also been proactive in reaching out to grant holders to offer (subject to approval) uplifts in grants to respond to the crisis.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me and I can point you in the right direction.
Kind regards,
Ash
Ash Godfrey
Senior Community Support Officer