Yesterday the Health Protection Agency announced that Watford, Hertsmere and Three Rivers have been designated as areas of “widespread community transmission”. In essence this means that attempts to contain the spread of the virus have had only a limited success and swine flu is now increasingly prevalent within the community - a situation we share with colleagues in the West Midlands, London, Luton and parts of Berkshire.

We are consulting with the HPA as to the practical implications of this announcement but we understand that this change of status may mean a different approach is taken to manage outbreaks in school, in that particular part of the county. Whilst local risk assessments will continue to be performed by the HPA and Head Teachers at each school associated with cases, we understand that closure will not normally be recommended unless there are some special circumstances. This reflects the opportunities for further exposures to occur in the community compared with areas where there is no significant community transmission.

Staff in CSF will continue to work closely with Head Teachers to try to minimise the impact on school activity of sickness absence amongst pupils and staff between now and the end of the school term.

From HCC’s perspective the likely consequences are:
less pressure on staff to find emergency child-care solutions (where schools might otherwise have closed)
potentially higher sickness absence from staff living and / or working in that part of the county
increased staff absence where carers need to stay at home to look after close family members who themselves catch swine flu.

All departments have recently refreshed their business continuity plans which should put us in a good position to deal with this situation and ensure that all HCC services can be delivered with the minimum of disruption.

St Albans District Council and Hertfordshire County Council (Herts Highways) are joining forces to cleanse and repair heavily parked roads in our district. The dates in Central Division are shown below.

Clarence Road, St Albans 14/07/09-16/07/09
Hart Road, St Albans 15/07/09
Pageant Road, St Albans 15/07/09
Sopwell Lane, St Albans 15/07/09
Old London Road, St Albans 20/07/09
Grosvenor Road, St Albans 21/07/09-22/07/09
Bardwell Road, St Albans 23/07/09-24/07/09

The Audit Commission said today it looks forward to discussing the scope of the review of council funding for local newspapers announced by the Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw.

The government yesterday unveiled its white paper ‘Digital Britain’ which raised concerns about the growth of councils’ own newspapers. The white paper said it might be ‘against the public interest’ if they attracted advertising revenue away from local papers in commercial ownership.

Mr Bradshaw said: ‘We are asking the Audit Commission to examine the practice of local authorities spending quite a lot of council tax payers’ money putting out free newspapers and, in the process, swallowing up a lot of local advertising that might otherwise go to local papers.’

A review by the Office of Fair Trading had already noted ‘the adverse impact on local newspapers of the increasing role of local authorities in taking paid advertising to support local authority information sheets.’ It was worried that, coupled with other pressures, this may make local commercial media unviable.

Audit Commission Chief Executive Steve Bundred said he would be discussing the breadth, timing and financing of the proposed piece of work with the Department of Culture Media and Sport. ‘The Audit Commission exists to assess value for money for the public purse, and enjoys the trust of ministers, councils and consumers in providing fair, objective assessments. Local news and council information are both valuable resources, and if we are invited to take on this study we will find out how they can co-exist in the fast-changing world of new media.’

The Digital Britain report says: ‘While local authority information sheets can serve a useful purpose for local residents and businesses, they will inevitably not be as rigorous in holding local institutions to account as independent local media … the Government is therefore inviting the Audit Commission to undertake a specific inquiry into the prevalence of this practice, its impact and to make recommendations on best practice and if restraints should be placed on local authority activity in this field.’

Swine Flu

The Council is working with the local Primary Care Trust and other partners. The position continues to be assessed on an on-going basis, and weekly at the Chief Executive’s Board meeting. There has been an acceleration in the last week or so which is affecting how plans are developing. This also means that the figures below are susceptible to change.

Planning for the activation of antiviral collection points continues.

Council personnel policies and procedures are being reviewed to cater for a pandemic scenario within the St Albans area, should that be necessary.

Latest figures show:

Countries infected: 99
Confirmed cases globally: 49,646 including 230 deaths
Confirmed cases EU/EFTA: 4245
Confirmed cases UK: 2905
Confirmed case East of England: 101
Confirmed cases Hertfordshire 21

The latest West Hertfordshire PCT statement can be seen at http://www.wherts-pct.nhs.uk/Content.asp?id=SXBA17-A77F7FE9&cat=1375

One school in Hertfordshire, in Bushey, is closed. Two further schools, in Stevenage and St Albans have confirmed cases, but remain open.

There have been some minor modifications to the guidance to schools. While the local risk assessment process will still apply, where there is evidence of significant community transmission, closure of a school will not normally be recommended unless there are special circumstances.

There is evidence of sustained community transmission in the West Midlands, the Clyde Estuary and London.

Councillor Chris White, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board:

Hertfordshire is on the starting blocks for London 2012 Open Weekend

It’s just four short weeks away until Hertfordshire and the rest of the UK c
elebrate the 3-year countdown to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. What will you do to celebrate the Open Weekend on 24 - 26 July?

Why not join in and do something you’ve never tried before? We want organisations and venues to open up and challenge themselves to do something different. And we want the public to join in and try something new, inspired by London 2012. This could be learning a new language, trying out a new sport or exploring parts of your local area you’ve never seen before.

Hertfordshire is piloting ideas around the county during the Open Weekend which we hope will become regular events that bring communities together beyond 2012. We are particularly keen on cultural activities in town centres and events that make more use of open spaces. And Lee Valley Regional Park, home to the White Water Olympic venue in Broxbourne Hertfordshire will have all sorts of exciting events over the weekend.

The Open Weekend is a perfect example of how communities from around the UK, and not just those in London, can get involved with the London 2012 Games. And it illustrates how the London 2012 Games is about a whole lot more than sport.
To register your event log onto: www.london2012.com/openweekend and complete the form.

Chris White is appearing this afternoon before the All-Party Retail Group to give evidence against the Government imposing mandatory licensing conditions on local authorities. He does so as Chair of the Culture, Tourism and Sport Board of the Local Government Association.

Chris says: ‘We all want misuse of alcohol to be curtailed - and that includes irresponsible retailing. Councils need the powers to tackle alcohol-related harm. Imposing central conditions on local circumstances will not help and could well hinder existing efforts.’

The decision by Parliament to allow the Government to regulate fees has cost council taxpayers an estimated £100 million in lost revenues because fees are not covering licensing and enforcement costs - a clear example of why Whitehall does not know best.

Embargoed announcement by the county council:

Francis Bacon School was today removed from special measures following an inspection vist by OfSTED. The school is now satisafactory with some good features. A tremendous job has been done by the headteacher, staff and governors, with very good support from CSF, led by Kate Smith. The leadership by the governing body has been judged as outstanding - a notable achievement led by the Chair, Carole Connelly.

YOU ARE INVITED TO ATTEND THE
ST ALBANS CITY FORUM MEETING
ON TUESDAY 23rd JUNE 2009
AT 7pm

IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER
ST ALBANS CITY AND DISTRICT COUNCIL

If you would like to put forward a question at the meeting please
telephone 01727 864511 between 10.30 and 14.30 on the 23RD June and you will be allocated 3mins for your issue.

The current priorities for St Peter’s ward are:

Carlisle Avenue and Palfrey Close: anti-social behaviour and criminal damage

Rough drinkers

Underage drinkers: the number of youths being stopped with alcohol has decreased a lot. Local off-licences and food stores are working very closely with the police and council to enable them to not serve underage youths.

There are many other matters of concern: please let us know if there is something your police or councillors should be attending to.

See below for the latest statistics.

hcc-expenses-2008-2009.pdf