Minutes:
From January 2013, there will be 800 plus serving members of the Corps of Royal Engineers who will be made redundant, some of whom are currently stationed in and around the Medway Towns. Under the Military / Community Covenant, to which Medway Council put its signature, what does the Leader intend to do about it?
Councillor Rodney Chambers stated that it was reassuring to see that the signing of the Medway Armed Forces Covenant earlier this year was already having a positive impact on how Medway citizens wished to support their local Armed Forces, especially considering the Council’s special links with the Royal School of Military Engineering, and the Royal Engineers in particular.
As far as he was aware, there were no formal announcements in relation to the next tranche of Army redundancies and therefore it was not possible to predict the impact on those who were stationed here or who would wish to settle in Medway in the future. However, in the spirit of the Covenant, he envisaged Medway Council ensuring fair and equitable treatment, and special treatment where appropriate, in support of those serving and leaving the Armed Forces and could imagine areas of support might focus on Health, Education and possibly Housing depending on the needs of the individual.
However, the Armed Forces had a comprehensive resettlement and redundancy package and therefore he did not envisage Medway Council having a specific role in supporting those who were made redundant unless of course they had specific needs that the Council could assist with in line with the Armed Forces Covenant.
In addition to this, and as an example of whether other organisations were also providing assistance, he stated that Medway Citizens Advice Bureau, which had also signed the Covenant had been helping and supporting the soldiers.
For example, Medway Citizens Advice Bureau spoke to just under 500 soldiers about debt earlier in the week at the request of senior military officers.
Redundancy and unemployment in Medway was something that Medway Citizens Advice Bureau would be closely monitoring as part of their Special Impact Board that the Medway Citizens Advice Bureau were setting up with the Council's support.
Medway Citizens Advice Bureau were also able to send a redundancy support team into any organisation that may need help in Medway.
Therefore, he stated that everyone needed to wait and see for any formal announcements from the Ministry of Defence. However, there were systems in place to deal with any eventualities.
Tony Jeacock stated that many of these young heroes enlisted upon completion of an extended period of full time education and had limited knowledge, if any, of how to approach adult civilian life or who to go to for help regarding everyday services that most of us take for granted. To demonstrate that more than lip service was being paid to the aforementioned Covenant, should Medway Council appoint someone to liaise with the local military and with local businesses and services and, for example, produce a pamphlet to guide and point them in the right direction locally thereby greatly assisting their integration into civilian life?
Councillor Rodney Chambers stated that the Ministry of Defence did not wash its hands of soldiers and when they were made redundant, they themselves provided the advice that Mr Jeacock was suggesting and as far as liaising with the services, he stated that the information that he was able to provide this evening was because of that liaison with the services and that a number of the answers that he had given came from them. He stated that Mr Jeacock had mentioned 800 in his question, there was no indication that a large part of that 800 would be here in Medway.
In fact, under Tranche 2 which was announced in January, the numbers that were made redundant and needing support were less than five here in Medway and they received support from the Council, Citizens Advice and also continuing support from the Army itself. He stated that he did not think there was a need to actually appoint a special liaison officer, there was continuing liaison with the Armed Forces and they kept in touch with the Council regarding anything that the Council could do to help support those that would be leaving the service and requiring assistance.