Doncaster council boss outlines initial recovery scenarios to business

Damian Allen, council chief executive, said sectors like house building could restart in the near future and discussions with other regional councils on the reopening of waste management and recycling centres were ongoing.

He said the recovery was ‘not straightforward’ and was ‘difficult to manage’, especially with the changing policy from central government.

He said officials in government departments responsible for councils are concerned about the public being fearful of returning to work, especially on public transport when the lockdown begins to be lifted.

He also predicted there would have to be an ‘oversupply’ of public transport to keep up social distancing measures.

Mr Allen said it was ‘critically important’ that the most vulnerable needed to carry on being protected, but admitted this did place a strain on families and some council support services.

He said: “We could soon see if certain criteria are met that the so-called ‘non-essential’ sectors to the public health emergency can be brought on.

“We’ve started to see that with the construction sector and the Secretary of State has started talking about kick-starting house building again.

“I was recently talking with the ministry responsible and their worry is there will be an over-compliance that when people are asked to come back, people will be fearful of rejoining the workforce, particularly if they are taking public transport.

“What we will see in the gradual easing of lockdown is the need to oversupply public transport to ensure social distancing is assured.

“Another scenario we’re facing, and this is critically important before the easing of lockdown, is sufficient testing and tracing, so we understand the infection in the community, especially in regards to key workers.

“It’s important we keep on shielding our most vulnerable people - that does create great stress and strain on them and their families, but also on some of the support services. We don’t want a second peak.

“The challenge we have is the assumptions we’re making in our recovery strategy - we need to be mindful of the direction of Government policy going forward.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor