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Friday 14 May 2021
 Plymouth residents are being urged to remain vigilant as more COVID-19 restrictions are lifted from Monday (17 May).
The rate of cases in Plymouth is now above the national average after being lower for most of the pandemic.
Ruth Harrell, Director of Public Health for Plymouth, said while the spread of the virus had reduced and many people had now been vaccinated, the number of positive cases across Plymouth had increased in recent weeks.
She said: “This is a reminder of how easily the virus can spread and is why we are asking people to keep following the rules – including social distancing, washing hands and wearing face coverings.
“As people are out and about more, it’s important that everyone remembers to take a test twice a week. There are a number of testing sites across Plymouth and people can also pick up free testing kits from libraries and local pharmacies or order them online so they can regularly test themselves at home.”
Dr Harrell has recorded a video message in the lead up to the relaxation of restrictions from Monday, which will see the majority of the indoor and remaining outdoor businesses reopen and the numbers of people allowed to meet up increase to six people or two households indoors and up to 30 people outdoors.
If meeting others indoors it is important to take precautions, including opening a window to allow fresh air in.
A summary of the changes to COVID restrictions due to take place on Monday can be found on the national Government website.
The Forder Valley Link Road project is reaching a major milestone as work gets underway to install the 28 concrete beams that will form the 140-metre bridge across the valley.
A specialist 100-metre crane is being built on site and will lift each of the 105-tonne, 32-metre long beams into place over the coming weeks.
Once completed, the bridge will carry a three-lane carriageway, as well as a footway and cycleway.
The Forder Valley Link Road will help reduce journey times to and from key destinations such as Derriford Hospital, the University of St Mark and St John and Plymouth Science Park, as well as improve bus service reliability.
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The City Council is welcoming 15 new councillors following the local elections held last week
The Conservative Party now has 26 members of the Council and Labour 24. There are seven independent members.
Despite being the largest party, the Conservative group does not have an overall majority and discussions are taking place in advance of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 21 May to establish the nature of a new administration.
The AGM will also see the swearing in of the new Lord Mayor.
To see the full results of the local election visit our election webpage.
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Community groups are being encouraged to apply for funding to help unlock the potential of Plymouth’s city centre.
‘High Street Sparks’ is a new bursary scheme that will run for the next three years. It’s part of the £95 million government-funded High Street Heritage Action Zone programme delivered by Historic England, which has been designed to give 60 different high streets across the country a boost.
Post-pandemic Plymouth, like many other towns and cities, is evolving. The ‘High Street Sparks’ scheme will gift small grants of up to £2,500 (and £5,000 in exceptional cases) to community projects that focus on a specially designated conservation area in the city centre.
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We’re not going to water down the truth this week – liquids are a huge contaminate for otherwise good recycling and cause a whole wave of issues when placed in household recycling containers.
Our latest recycling blog gives the low down on the problem of putting liquids in your recycling.
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The deadline for EU citizens wishing to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living and working in the UK is now less than 50 days away.
If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen and want to continue to work, study and access healthcare in the UK you have until 30 June to apply.
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We will helping families entitled to free school meals by providing vouchers to buy food during the May half-term.
We have secured £217,892 in Government funding to support vulnerable Plymouth families affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.
From 21 May we will begin sending batches of food e-voucher codes to schools and early year’s settings for them to distribute to families on their free school meal registers. Each code can be used once to redeem vouchers to the value of £15 per child at various supermarkets.
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We are using this year's Foster Care Fortnight (10 to 23 May) to highlight the positive difference that fostering can make to the lives of children and young people in Plymouth.
If you are thinking about fostering why not use this year's campaign to find out about the full training and support we offer, as well as the allowances that reflect the real cost of looking after a child.
To keep everyone safe this year we are holding evening information events online. Prospective cares will get the chance to meet assessing social workers, supervising social workers, foster carers and team managers.
If you are interested just drop our recruitment officer an email fostering@plymouth.gov.uk.
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