Councillor Stephen Alambritis gave the annual report he provides to all of the community forums.

Sadly 205 people in Merton have died from COVID-19, and Stephen offered his condolences. 38 of these died in care homes, and Merton Council is working closely with care homes to support them. Merton is also researching in the issues behind inequality of BAME residents in relation to COVID. In Merton more than 7000 residents were shielded, all of whom were contacted and offered support. The local community also came together to support residents and Stephen highlighted the work of Merton Mutual Aid, Dons Local Action Group, Commonside Trust, and foodbanks, as well as paying tribute to the many volunteers who contributed. Stephen also thanked the local MPs Siobhan McDonald and Stephen Hammond.

Merton is joining Croydon to nominate Patrick Hutchinson for a bravery award following his rescuing of a rival protester in London.

Services are reopening with Garth Road no longer needing booking at weekends, but booking required Monday – Friday.  Merton was the 3^rd quickest in London in getting government grants out to local businesses. Helped 2000+ SME businesses. Merton also waived rents as a landlord.

Merton has an Emergency transport strategy including 26 school streets. We have used and Experimental Management Order as we were asked by government to move quickly. Also 52 rough sleepers were helped into accommodation during lockdown, with 8 refusing the offer of help. We hope the Government will provide support to help find long term solutions.

Sutton and Merton are still on lower end of infection scales, and Stephen paid tribute to Director of Public Health and her staff of their hard work. Merton redeployed staff to help with the crisis, for example the Bailiffs team were tasked with distributing food parcels.

AFC Wimbledon’s new stadium is nearly finished, with the first match due to be played behind closed doors on 3 November. This will help regenerate Plough Lane area, including more than 800 new housing units.

We have referred the proposals to downgrade St Helier Hospital to the Secretary of State for Health, and he has asked the independent reconfiguration panel to review the decision taken by the Clinical Commissioning Group.

Cllr Mark Allison, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, was asked by the Chair to provide an update on the Council’s finances. He said Merton has used its resources to support the community and worked in partnership with local groups. Merton has distributed more than government has provided to local businesses. Around £27m has been spent on COVID that has not been reimbursed. This equates to 25% of council tax income. Merton will need to dip into reserves and will need to make cuts of around £17m for 2021/2. We hope the government will acknowledge the shortfall and meet these additional needs.

Cllr Gretton asked about the Government commitment to provide 75p in £1 in lost income. Cllr Allison responded that this is welcome but the shortfall will still have a huge impact, and in practice the support is unlikely to be as high as 75%. This will still mean significant cuts to local services.