Somerset's Worrying Covid-19 Trends: We Challenge The Authorities Again

 

Standing Up For Somerset Residents

During the entire Global Pandemic of Covid-19, Somerset Independents has challenged councils, councillors, MPs and national Government.

Unlike the national political parties and their elected representatives, we actually have stood up for residents.

It is in our Constitution that as residents ourselves, that our officers and supporters work together with other residents, to stand together.

Residents are extremely concerned at the Covid-19 infection trends in Somerset and the West of England.

So our officers Andrew Pope and Denise Wyatt wrote again to the Director of Public Health for Somerset, Trudi Grant.

We said:

"Further to our earlier correspondence with you and your staff, for which we thank you again, we are writing to express our great concern at the Covid-19 data for Somerset, especially for the Mendip District Council area.

For much of the Pandemic, Mendip and the other council areas for which you are responsible, have been in the lower part of the infection rates for our region.

However, Mendip is now the worst area, as presented by the BBC two days ago on BBC Points West and shown in the official figures as documented by the BBC here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274"

The questions followed in our letter. 

You can see the full questions and Ms Grant's responses to our questions, below.

Tell us what you think of the questions and the answers.

 

"Dear Mr Pope and Ms Wyatt

 

Thank you for your email.  To follow up your queries, please find responses below;

 

Q1. Please can you provide an explanation for this, with the evidence that you have to support your explanation?

 

Case rates in Mendip as you reference have been higher, but for the last 7 days reporting 1-7^th October, rates are beginning to decline now 466.3/100,000. This is still higher than regional average. I believe in part this is probably caused by lower population immunity levels, acquired through natural immunity due to previously low levels within this district.  School age children and staff linked to education settings made up 68% of Mendip’s cases (30/9-6/10/21)

 

Q2. Please can you tell us why it is deemed, as reported on BBC Points West, that schools are deemed the source of infection, and the cause of the high infection rates? The BBC report seemed to suggest that schools were at fault. Why is this thought please? 

 

Schools are in no way at fault, but the school environment is one of the main sources of transmission currently, 68% of cases in Mendip the last week were linked to school children or staff.  Our local schools have been brilliant and SCC Public Health are working very hard with them to help put control measures in place within each school,  as per the DfE Contingency Framework. 

 

Q3. Please can you tell us what influence, if any, the mass gatherings at the Bath and West Showground have had, and what evidence there is that these are influential, or no influential on infections?  

 

Based on the information gathered through the National Test and Trace system, we have no evidence that the Bath & West Showground is featuring in the common places visited by cases prior to their disease onset.

 

Q4. What data on infections, and what actions to control infections, are Bath and West REQUIRED to carry out and what involvement do you have as DPH? 

 

SCC has funded a Covid event officer post for Somerset, hosted by Mendip DC, to work with event organisers and ensure events go ahead as Covid19 secure as possible and relevant to their setting.  This officer engages early with event organisers to review their event management plans with specific reference to controlling the risk of transmission of Covid-19.  For larger events, members of my team also attend pre-event planning meetings to ensure the public health advice is part of the consideration.  To note, that it is the event organiser, rather than the Bath and West Showground itself, which devises and implements the plan. 

 

Q5. Would you agree therefore, that the cancellation of the Pilton "Equinox" Festival had a positive effect on reducing infection in the Mendip area, and Somerset more widely?  

 

We cannot say for sure that by cancelling these events, there was a positive effect on reducing infection as it’s always hard to count what has been prevented. However, the more people we mix with, the more chance the virus has to spread. Under the new national CONTAIN framework, it is for individuals to make these choices. As DPH we make information materials available to help people make informed choices. We are about to launch a public health campaign to help inform people decisions. If you follow my twitter account, it would be great if you could help spread the reach of the campaign by retweeting these messages to your members.

 

Event organisers have worked very productively with us throughout the pandemic and have listened to public health advice.

 

Q6. And similarly to Q4, the same for the Nass Festival? 

 

Please see the above reply regarding the Equinox Festival.  The same answer applies to the NASS Festival.

 

Q7. Somerset Independents campaigned against both Nass and Equinox from going ahead, because of the threat to Somerset residents' health, and we were very disappointed that Mendip Council officers treated both events as if they were not a danger. Why did you as Director of Public Health, allow them to do so? 

 

Nationally the decision has been taken to allow events of all forms and sizes to go ahead.  Obviously, as previously stated, where there are gatherings of people there is always an increased risk of infection, but we can mitigate risks as much as possible.  As you know, this whole pandemic has been a balance of risk, in the case of events, balancing the risk of infection with the risk to the events industry.  We need to learn to live with this virus, and part of that has to be opening up events.   As mentioned above, Mendip District Council hosts the event officer and works proactively alongside SCC Public Health, and with event organisers, to support events going ahead with appropriate covid19 mitigations in place in accordance with the legal framework.

 

Q8. If you do not have the data to answer the above questions with credibility, please can you tell us why you do not have the data, and what you are doing about it?  

 

We do have all the available data.

 

Thank you for your ongoing support, it is greatly appreciated.

 

With best wishes

 

Trudi

 

 

Professor Trudi Grant,  MSc, UKPHR, FFPH

Director of Public Health

Somerset County Council

 

Visiting Professor, Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing, UWE Bristol"

 

Somerset Independents On Somerset Businesses: Just What Is Going On At Clark's?

 

Somerset Independents wants Somerset residents to be proud of what Somerset businesses produce, and for Somerset's reputation to be enhanced outside Somerset and across the world.

We will happily praise Somerset-based businesses that Somerset people can be proud of. But we will challenge businesses that we believe may be tarnishing the reputation of Somerset.

Clark's shoes was founded in Street, Somerset, by the Quakers C & J Clark. The Registered Office is still in Street. The Alfred Gillett Trust is a Somerset-based charity in Street which "preserves the heritage collections of C & J Clark Ltd., the family which founded the global shoemaking company".

It has been a large employer of Somerset workers for almost 200 years. It is a well-known and respected brand for shoes.

We were therefore concerned to hear of the ongoing industrial dispute at Clark's, which has now led to strike action.

So we have contacted workers representatives at the Mendip Trades Union Council (TUC), to try to find out the truth behind the strikes.

Somerset Independents officers Andrew Pope and Denise Wyatt wrote to the Mendip TUC, saying:

"This dispute is tarnishing the reputation of Clarks, who were founded by Quakers. And it is harming the relationship between employer and employees. This will impact on the sustainability of the business, harming Somerset's workers.

We believe that the founders would be extremely upset at the current situation and that they would never have allowed this.

What changes have occurred since the Lion Rock takeover and how are the "key" shareholders acting since the takeover to protect the company's reputation?

What changes have occurred in employment relations?

Now that workers have been forced to strike, do you believe that the new owners will bring retribution on any workers?

Finally, how can Somerset Independents assist in helping to resolving the situation?"

 

Mendip TUC told us:

"Clarks warehouse workers, members of the Community Union, face the following threats:

1. An average reduction in pay of £1.66 per hour: from the current £11.16p to £9.50p;

2. An increase in working hours of 2.5 per week, due to paid 30-minute meal breaks being abolished;

3. No pay rise for at least four years, despite the union agreeing to help the company through a 'difficult financial spell' by accepting two hours less per week INSTEAD of a pay rise on two different occasions and at the company’s proposal.

4. Drastic cuts in sick pay: from 13 weeks full pay to 6 weeks full pay and 6 weeks half pay; abolition of sick pay for the first day of absence; no sick pay entitlement from day one of employment, only after 6 months;

5. The abolition of a daily ten-minute coffee break, brought in at the company's request to ease warehouse operations;

6. A drastic reduction in redundancy entitlements: from enhanced double statutory, to statutory, (ie, one week’s wages per year of service), raising fears that the company will get rid of workers, even close the Street Distribution Centre, just as they are closing their distribution centre in Kendal.  

7. Cuts to overtime rates to time thus giving no chance to increase pay"

8. No direct cuts to maternity pay or pension entitlements, BUT with a 15-20% cut in wages, pensions will suffer a drastic fall when taken out."

Dave Chapple, Secretary of Mendip TUC, said:

"I have personally, met four Clarks workers who fear losing their homes (Inability to pay rent, mortgage) and even lose contact with their children (If only able to afford a bedsit, unsuitable accommodation for children).

Is this the Clarks Quaker Family firm that was an iconic part of manufacturing, 'factory' Britain for 200 years?

Is this, even the Clarks family firm that, even when it closed all of its Somerset factories over a 15-year period, nonetheless treated its remaining Street HQ and warehouse workers, and their trades unions, with respect?

NO! Welcome to the "Brave New World" of Clarks' new owners Lion Rock Capital.

Hong Kong based, venture capitalist, hedge fund capitalist, slash and burn capitalist, just pick your most accurate label!

Is this really the future for work in this country: no more decent trades union recognition or collective bargaining negotiations, just industrial dictatorship, "take it or leave it" "Fire and rehire?” "

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope, says:

Andrew Pope

"Just what is going on at Clark's? What do the new owners think they are doing? Do they even know about the traditions of Clark's, or even care?

Many years ago, when I was doing my training to be a union representative and negotiator, I was stunned to hear that under a Labour Government (Blair/Brown), that Fire and Rehire was commonly done. Worse, it was allowed under UK law. In 13 years of Government, Labour failed to end Fire and Rehire.

Loosely, what Fire and Rehire means is that employers are able to dismiss employees on existing contracts, and force them to accept new terms and conditions in a new contract. If the employee does not sign the new contract, then they are deemed to no longer have a job.

Indeed, this is what happened in the large negotiation in the AXA Group of insurance companies, in which I represented thousands of employees in the harmonisation of terms of conditions, after AXA had taken over other companies. 

I pushed back when the directors of AXA said that the harmonisation would be done via the termination of existing contracts, but other union representatives and the union official explained to me that this was the way it was going to be done.

So I fought very hard to ensure that if this was going to be done, that there would be an absolute minimum of employees losing out.

This situation at Clark's is therefore horrendous to hear about. It is almost as if the new owners of Clark's, Lion Rock, want to force employees out and this Fire and Rehire is their tool of choice for achieving this, by cutting pay and conditions unilaterally, without the agreement of employees."

Somerset Independents is considering its next steps in relation to this dispute.

 

YOUR BINS: We Confirm Penalties Activated On Somerset's Waste Partnership Contract - But Councillors Aren't Doing Enough

 

THE SWP FAILS AGAIN!

For months, Somerset Independents have been listening to residents and workers complaining about the contract for bins and recycling that Somerset's councillors have let using the Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP). 

It hasn't been a once-off, thousands upon thousands of bin and recycling collections have been missed. And we have confirmed that it is still happening!

For months, Somerset Independents have been standing up for residents to get action on bins and recycling.

The Somerset Waste Partnership is a partnership between the district councils and county council. In other parts of the country, each district council runs its own bin collections and recycling. Those councils trust their own workers to do the bins and recycling.

But councillors in Somerset have decided to farm it out to contractors.

Such contractors like Suez are making billions from waste management across the World. Yet they do not seem to be able to get it right here in Somerset, and Somerset's councillors are letting them get away with it.

For months now, the over 250 district and county councillors have been failing to fix the problems with the bins and recycling. 

We have had to put these councillors under pressure.

Now we've been told by Sedgemoor District Council, when we asked them:

"What penalties has the Council made for poor performance?"

They told us:

"The contract with Suez is managed by the Somerset Waste Partnership and they manage the penalties. All applicable deductions are currently applied to the monthly invoicing procedure.

They are passing the buck, instead of taking responsibility. And they are lending millions of pounds of taxpayers money for this failing contract. Our queries have discovered this.

Why have Somerset Independents had to do this? 

BECAUSE NEARLY ALL OF SOMERSET'S 250+ COUNCILLORS ARE NOT STANDING UP FOR YOU! 

WE HAVE TO VOLUNTEER TO STAND UP WITH RESIDENTS.

Because hardly any councillors have taken action that matters. 

We are aware of only two councillors - out of over 250 - that seem to have got the message that residents are very unhappy and have spoken out in public.

Collecting our bins and recycling are basic services of what Somerset's councils should be doing for our council tax.

Do you think you are getting the service that you deserve? Residents tell us NO!

Do you think you are getting value for your council tax? Residents say NO!

Do you think workers on the bins and recycling are being treated fairly? They tell us NO!

Residents have told us so many horrendous stories about Somerset's councils' failures to provide these basic services that should be provided. 

And workers have also told us how badly they have been treated by their employer, when working on the bins and recycling.

From what we have been told, it is no wonder that the Somerset Waste Partnership struggles to recruit and retain workers. The pay and conditions are terrible. 

And the reputation of the SWP is appalling, and not getting any better. 

The councils claim they can't pay better because of the cost of paying better. Yet contractor Suez makes billions on council contracts like the SWP. We think that residents and workers should come before profit. Do you agree?

Yet the district and county councils seem to find the money for their vanity projects, spending tens of millions of pounds on the wrong priorities:

- theatre renovations in Yeovil instead of getting your bins collected

- investing in commercial property outside of Somerset, risking tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers money that should be going on services

- proposing to prop up the privately-owned Yeovil Town Football Club using taxpayers' millions to pay off loans

And councillors put your council tax up too - with some councillors not paying their own council tax, as we discovered and reported on - our hard work which local and national media are now reporting on.

Now, following our calls for the Somerset Waste Partnership to be disbanded and the services run directly by the councils, our investigations have discovered that the penalties in the contract ARE now finally being activated.

How do we know?

Members of Somerset Independents submitted a large number of questions to Somerset's councils about the way they are managing their finances.

And the answers are very concerning. Some of the councils are going on a spending spree - WITH YOUR MONEY!

Amongst the answers, one of the more honest councils - Sedgemoor District Council - has told us what is really going on. They actually answer our questions, but other councils evade us, try to ignore us, or don't answer at all. And they do the same to other local media too.

Councils like Mendip District Council and South Somerset District Council are trying to hide what is going on, failing to give straight answers or even failing to meet the legal obligations to answer our questions.

We have been told in the above answer that the penalties in the contract have been activated.

But Somerset Independents says that it isn't enough.

Somerset's councillors are not doing enough to push for the contract to be terminated, and for the bins and recycling to be brought back in-house.

Residents have had enough of the lack of openness and transparency about our bins and recycling.

Residents have had enough of the barrage of fake news produced by the army of PR people at the Somerset Waste Partnership, who have blamed Covid-19, Brexit, their employees, agency staff and everyone except themselves. They've even blamed residents.

We say that the activation of the penalty clauses shows the failure of councillors to take the action necessary. They let the contract but they aren't managing the contractors properly to ensure our bins and recycling are done.

Councillors need to be held to account for their continuing failures to stand up for you.

Write to your councillor. Tell us what they say, if they do bother to respond. Tell us if they do not respond - this is what residents tell us happens too often!

Put your postcode in at the link here and you can use WriteToThem.com to write to your councillor to demand that:

- councillors cancel the contract

- bring the bins and recycling back in-house,

- ensure that any future failures can be directly attributed to the council, instead of passing the buck to a faceless contractor.

Somerset Independents doesn't just say that we stand up for residents.

Somerset Independents DOES stand up for residents.

Because the councillors from the national political parties do not stand up for you.