Elected Member Briefing - arrangements to mark State Funeral Bank Holiday

This Briefing Note has been published on the Council's website following circulation to Councillors. Its contents may be disclosed or shared outwith the Council.

Details

Purpose

To provide elected members with information on the announcement King Charles III that the date of the State Funeral for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be a national bank holiday will be implemented in Perth & Kinross Council.

Briefing Information

King Charles III has approved an order that the date of the State Funeral, confirmed as Monday 19 September 2022, will be a national bank holiday.

Having considered guidance from the Scottish Government and CoSLA, the Council's Executive Leadership Team has agreed that to allow staff to pay their respects and to recognise the bank holiday, all schools, early learning centres, and Council offices will be closed on that day.

Dundee City Council and Angus Council have confirmed that they are taking the same approach to the bank holiday.

Essential services will continue to operate in similar arrangements to those used at Christmas with care at home rotas and Greyfriars House operating as normal. This will result in a number of service changes on that date.

Service changes

School closures

Advice received from the Scottish Government is that schools and other settings across Scotland that would normally be closed on a bank holiday should close on that day. As this closure will take us below the requirement of 190 school days in a year an application has been made to and granted by the Scottish Government for an exemption to support this.

Bin collections

There will be no waste and recycling bin collections on Monday 19 September. Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer alternative collection dates for households affected by this as our seven day a week collection timetable does not have the capacity to absorb these bin routes at any other time. During the festive period we are able to use capacity gained by suspending the garden and food waste collection service to offer alternative collection dates for household, but that capacity is not available at this time of year.

Our advice to households due to have bins collected on Monday 19 September is that they should not present bins for collection on that date. A reasonable amount of excess bagged waste can be presented beside green-lidded general waste bins on the next date those are due to be collected. While we cannot accept excess bagged waste for blue-lidded (dry mixed recycling) and brown-lidded (garden and food waste) bins, excess from both of these bins can be taken to local recycling centres (when they are open) and recycling points.

Funerals

We have received requests from funeral directors to close Perth Crematorium on Monday 19 September to allow them and their staff the opportunity to observe the State Funeral bank holiday. Given this and the impact that continuing to offer planned services at the crematorium would have on the ability of other businesses to observe the bank holiday, we will postpone and rearrange any planned services.

All services which were due to take place on Monday 19 September have been rearranged.

Other closures

Appointments service for all Council offices and teams not part of emergency arrangements
Recycling centres
Registrars
Public toilets
Perth Crematorium
Greyfriars Cemetery

Out of hours arrangements for all other essential services will be in place:

Adult care services 0345 301 11 20
Anti-social behaviour helpline (voicemail) 01738 476173
Child protection 01738 476768
Council housing emergency repairs 01738 476000
Dangerous buildings 01738 476476
Environmental health 01738 476476
Flooding 01738 476476
Homelessness 0800 917 0708
Mental health services 0345 301 11 20
Roads 01738 476476

ALEOs and Tayside Contracts

Culture Perth and Kinross venues are typically closed on Mondays anyway, however, they have confirmed that those venues which would normally be open will not operate on 19 September.

Horsecross Arts have no events scheduled to take place on 19 September.

Live Active Leisure is taking a case-by-case approach to considering when buildings are closed.

Tayside Contracts will also be treating Monday 19 September as an additional bank holiday and delivering essential services as required by the three Councils.

Communicating service changes

Information will be sent to parents directly from schools about their closure, however, it is unlikely that this will be unexpected following coverage of the Scottish Government's announcement of the guidance they have issued.

Press and broadcast media, social media channels, our website and internal communications channels for staff will all include information about the impact of closures with reminders scheduled about how to contact duty services on the Monday.

Last modified on 04 January 2023