A roadmap to recovery has been presented to South Kesteven District Council by its leader this afternoon.

Coun Kelham Cooke told a virtual meeting of his cabinet how SKDC had responded to the pandemic and would work in its aftermath, with it facing financial challenges.

In a wide-ranging speech, he said the council had worked to ensure the safety of staff, residents and to protect services.

But the council still had a long way to go in the fight against Covid-19, as well as make progress on major projects such as St Martin's Park in Stamford and it's leisure programmes.

He told the online meeting: "We may have had to adapt our timescales and our approach, but our foot remains firmly on the pedal."

A detailed recovery plan would be presented to cabinet in September, along with a new corporate plan and amended budget framework.

The council was previously in a Response phase when it took emergency action such as closing public buildings, its offices, having staff working from home and distributing government support to businesses.

Now, SKDC was entering a Restart phase, with a phased re-opening of operations such as sports and arts and town centres.

There would also be a Recover phase where the council would seek to support businesses with wider specific support, which would be delivered through a refocussed InvestSK, which has already happened during lockdown.

There would also be a Reshape phase, with the council revising long term plans, such as increasing its digital services and having more of its staff working from home.

Coun Cooke said the council work more with voluntary groups and resume the building of council houses. Routine repairs to its 6,000 properties would start again.

He continued: "We continue to make the development of new leisure provision across our district a priority and are

enable the reopening of our existing leisure centres as soon as possible."

However, Coun Cooke gave no detail in what is proposed for each of the four towns in his speech.

Keeping the district clean would remain a priority, following on from the 'incredible' job done by waste and street scene crews recently.

However, the Covid-19 crisis has significantly hit council finances, so an amended budget would presented in September.

He continued: "Clearly, there remains a lot of uncertainty ahead. These are, quite simply, extraordinary and unprecedented times.

"The unpredictability that is being faced at every level - from parish councils to global institutions – means that our ability to both plan and respond rapidly will be the cornerstone of everything we do from this moment on.

He added: "So our plans will need to be flexible to take account of the uncertainty. But by taking the lessons-learned approach, continuing to work in partnership internally, across the public sector, with our voluntary sector colleagues, and with the business community, I hope we will be able to instil vital stability and confidence that we will come through this and that together, we will, ultimately be stronger."