Policy, Insight and Communications Reply to Melanie Marshman Call 01908 252842 E-mail [email protected] 16 November 2020 Dear clerks and councillors COVID marshal funding Milton Keynes Council has been allocated £134,642 in government funding to support enforcement and compliance activities in high streets and town centres. This funding is for activities which will support compliance with measures such as social distancing or wearing a face covering to control the spread of COVID, including the introduction of COVID marshals. We plan to pass this funding to Parish and Town Councils and the My Milton Keynes Business Improvement District to support them to put into place COVID marshals over the festive period. The overall aim is to ensure a safe reopening of our high streets and local centres for Christmas and the new year. We believe that Parish and Town Councils and the BID are ideally placed to put into place marshals particularly as some already have neighbourhood wardens whose remits could be expanded if given some additional capacity. The funding has been allocated on a one-off basis and we are not anticipating further allocations, so this will need to be a consideration when putting arrangements in place. The Government has published guidelines which includes the role of COVID marshals. The guidance is clear that the role of marshals should be with a focus on education and engagement to encourage compliance rather than enforcement. Anyone fulfilling the role of COVID marshal would need to be appropriately trained including completing the MKC Community Champion training. The funding will initially be allocated to Town and Parish Councils, alongside the BID, where there are town centres, high streets, retail areas with high footfall, or areas with multiple local centres. A small amount of funding will be retained to support other parishes that may wish to draw from it. The funding has been allocated as overleaf. If you would like to access the funding, please contact [email protected] to confirm as soon as possible. A grant agreement will be drawn up setting out the terms of the funding. We will ask for monthly updates on spend and after three months some qualitative feedback will be required about how the money has been used. If you have any queries about the funding or COVID marshals, please do feel free to get in touch with Mel Marshman. Kind regards, Sarah Gonsalves Director of Policy, Insight and Communications Civic, 1 Saxon Gate East, Central Milton Keynes, MK9 3EJ Allocated funding Group 1 My Milton Keynes BID £14k City Centre Group 2 Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Council £10k each Large town Newport Pagnell Town Council centres/high Wolverton and Greenleys Town Council streets Group 3 Shenley Brook End and Tattenhoe Parish Council £9k each Retail areas with (Westcroft) high footfall Campbell Park Parish Council (Oldbrook, Winterhill, etc) Bradwell Parish Council (Rooksley, Aldi etc) Kents Hill and Monkston Parish Council (Kingston) Group 4 Olney Town Council £7.5k each Areas with a Stony Stratford Town Council smaller single high Woburn Sands Town Council street / local centre Woughton Community Council with high footfall Group 5 Walton Community Council £2k each Areas with a Stantonbury Parish Council multiple local Great Linford Parish Council centres Shenley Church End Parish Council West Bletchley Council Broughton and Milton Keynes Parish Council Group 6 All others Pot of £12,642 to bid Small or rural against parishes Civic, 1 Saxon Gate East, Central Milton Keynes, MK9 3EJ .