Minutes:
Question from Helen Young
Given the humanitarian crisis happening in Afghanistan and the arrival of refugees to the UK, will Lincoln City be co-ordinating an effort to help them? I only ask as I have been on the gov.uk website: https://www.help-refugees-uk.service.gov.uk/ where you can look up different local authorities within the different areas of the country, and state what type of support you can give, but Lincoln is not listed. Thank you for your time regarding this question.
Reply from Councillor Ric Metcalfe, the Leader of the Council
Councillor Ric Metcalfe, the Leader of the Council, replied that the Council had been working closely with all district councils and the County Council to respond to the request for helping people evacuated from Afghanistan over the last few weeks. All key partners, including local authorities, adult care, children's services, health and education were part of an existing partnership, which was co-ordinated by North Kesteven District Council. The partnership had come together to ensure a comprehensive and consistent response was provided across Lincolnshire.
The City Council, Councillor Metcalfe continued, had a good record responding to this type of crisis. In this case the City Council had responded to the government's request to source some longer term accommodation and the Council was waiting for the Home Office to match three families to the three properties, which the Council had sourced to date in Lincoln. All evacuees had been accommodated in a hotel for quarantine purposes on arrival in the UK and were gradually being relocated to other hotels across the country. There were two hotels being used by the Home Office in Lincolnshire to accommodate families pending their offer of more settled accommodation.
Councillor Metcalfe explained that with respect to donations, it was no surprise that the Council had been inundated by offers from a vast range of sources from the faith sector to individual members of the public. The Council had been taken aback by people's kindness and generosity. The partnership had agreed that there was a need to make sure that the right things were being collected; and donations had to be collected and distributed in a co?ordinated way to ensure Afghan families were helped quickly and correctly. Many of the families had fled their country with absolutely nothing.
A hub and spoke arrangement had been set up across the county. Colleagues at Compassionate Lincoln were co?ordinating the collection of donations in Lincoln and they would be transferred to areas where items were required. Grantham Churches Together was also playing a role in distributing items across the county.
Donations of help would be appreciated over the next few months. There was a need to make sure the items donated matched the requirements of the families. The Council looked forward to giving a warm welcome to the families.
Supplementary
Helen Young asked where all the information that had been reported could be found, for example where not only useful items, but also volunteer time could be donated, as people were able to offer different skills sets, for example, the questioner worked in the health care sector.
Reply
Councillor Metcalfe undertook to contact North Kesteven District Council with a view to its provision of information on a website, which could be easily accessed by all those wishing to offer help. In addition, it was advised that an officer from the City of Lincoln Council would contact the questioner directly to provide such information.