Editor

It is disappointing to read so many negative reports and letters criticising Ceredigion County Council and Gold Command and their actions during the Covid pandemic situation, which has been ongoing since March 2020.

Just 16 months ago, the majority of Ceredigion residents were in favour of the many prompt and effective actions taken by the council in locking down the county to minimise the spread of the Covid virus.

It was quickly realised,addressing the pandemic needed swift operational decisions and actions and therefore Gold Command, which is multi-agency, was promptly activated; which is normal procedure for any emergency civil contingency situation such as a major road, rail, air and flood disasters. Under current rules, Gold Command is operational and does not include any councillors.

The prompt operational actions taken by Gold Command made a major contribution towards Ceredigion being the safest county in Wales and in mainland UK over many months.

Many people are under the impression that normal executive political powers have been stripped away from the elected councillors, which is not the case.There was a period when political led committees were suspended, whilst alternative home working arrangements for electronic virtual meetings such as zoom were implemented.

Many organisations in the UK and elsewhere had to adapt to new electronic ways of working.It has been said by some,including senior councillors, the council has become an officer led council. I personally don’t buy into that. We all have a role to play in the functioning of Ceredigion CC; councillors are there primarily to represent their community and provide political direction towards developing and approving policies, whereas officers are there to implement the policies and the operational functions of the council.

When activated, senior officers serve on Gold Command,chaired by our chief executive.Throughout the Covid crises, the chief executive provided weekly updates to cabinet members on a range of issues considered by Gold Command.

For my part, I sent notes of those meetings to the Independents, Independent Voice and Lib Dem group members to ensure they were kept well informed and I understand the Leader of the Plaid Group did likewise; so all councillors should have been aware of how things were going.

In turn, I offered regular briefings to both the Borth and Genau’r Glyn community councils in my ward, so they too were aware of how the Covid situation in Ceredigion was being dealt with.

The debate on safe zones is another matter, the aim of which is to provide safe social distancing; some are in favour and others against.

One outcome of the need for social distancing during the Covid situation, has been the opportunity to test and assess whether or not a café culture in Aberystwyth might be successful.

It has been mooted over the years and was certainly supported by many during the Aberystwyth Master Plan consultation meetings, which were facilitated by the Welsh Development Agency (WDA).

Sadly in 2006, Welsh Government pulled the plug on the WDA, which provided many economic development opportunities in Mid Wales; consequently the Aberystwyth Master Plan along with other WDA plans fell by the wayside.

Finally as a word of caution, on 17 August the Covid case numbers for Ceredigion was 166.4/100,000 and the positivity rate was 14 per cent.

Welsh Government is concerned whenever those figures exceed 50/100,000 and 5 per cent, therefore it is quite clear that Covid remains a matter of concern for our communities.

However, the positive news is the huge vaccination programme has vastly reduced the number of hospital cases, so hopefully we are on a positive path towards resuming normal activities.

Cllr Ray Quant, deputy leader, Ceredigion County Council.

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