Agenda and minutes

Items
No. Item

1.

Question from: County Councillor Matthew Dorrance Subject: Impact of reported fuel shortages

 

Question From:

County Councillor Matthew Dorrance 

Subject:

Impact of reported fuel shortages

Question To:

County Councillor Rosemarie Harris

Leader

 

Question:

 

What assessment has the Council made of the impact of reported fuel shortages on the delivery of essential council services?

 

 

Minutes:

Response by the Portfolio Holder:

 

Thank you for your enquiry of the 27th of September.

 

Whilst your enquiry is noted and understood it is perhaps rather early for the authority to assess the impact of potential fuel shortages on our ability to deliver our essential services.

 

The extent and duration of disruption to fuel supplies is currently unknown and it is therefore extremely difficult to assess its impact and indeed manage our response.

 

We are of course both working internally and with external partners to ensure that any such impact is as limited as possible. This includes working with all our operational teams and following established civil contingency plans and protocols for dealing with fuel shortages.

 

Social Services have been in touch with all of the providers to ensure we have an identified list of critical car users should we have to start issuing prioritisation letters.  We have also collated this for our internal staff.  Ali Bulman, Director has raised concerns with Welsh Government officials.  So far, the impact has been minimal with a number of agencies making their own arrangements with local suppliers to be prioritised.  Ali has liaised with Association of Directors of Social Services to get an oversight of the impact across Wales.  As you know Social Services have been working under Business Continuity since 16th March 2020 and continue to do so and this is yet another matter which needs to be dealt with to ensure we deliver our business critical activities and statutory duties to our local residents.

 

Home care staff and social workers carrying out critical work will be prioritised for fuel should this matter not be resolved.

 

I am sure that you will appreciate that the timing of this further challenge as we are still dealing with the impact of COVID is particularly unwelcome.

 

In the meantime, we are of course encouraging all our staff and residents to follow government guidance and not to panic buy.