Councillor Andy Corkhill moved and Councillor Dave Mitchell seconded the following motion submitted in accordance with Standing Order 13:

“Council notes that we are seeing unprecedented disruption to cancer services on the Wirral, in the Liverpool City Region and across England.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, thousands of vital cancer treatments, appointments, and care were postponed or cancelled. People in desperate need of help are still unable to access the support they need and the emotional impact of delays is contributing to a crisis in mental health.

Cancer Research has seen hundreds of millions of pounds lost from its budget and a similar amount of charity donations that usually prop up the research system has been unforthcoming as people struggle financially.

We are lucky on the Wirral that we have two world class Cancer Centres on our doorstep, but even here there are residents who have had operations and treatments postponed or suspended. In areas less well served, residents are not even being referred from their GPs to an Oncology Centre. The result of all this inaction means cancers are being caught later, sometimes too late to avoid preventable death.

Council believes that cancer should not be forgotten during the COVID-19 pandemic and requests the Leader of the Council, Group Leaders and Senior Council Officers to write to the Government, demanding urgent action to deliver cancer recovery plans to prevent this happening, to clear the backlog and to get cancer services back on track.”

Councillor Mary Jordan moved and Councillor David Burgess-Joyce seconded the following amendment, submitted in accordance with Standing Order 13.3:

“Delete final paragraph and replace with:

Council notes that in May 2020, NHS England directed all NHS trusts providing cancer services to develop and implement Cancer Recovery Plans and that, since then, Trusts have reported every 14 days on their performance against these plans.

Council also welcomes the recent presentation given to the Partnerships Committee by the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, which included progress against their recovery plan and the expansion of services at current and new locations to better serve all those diagnosed with cancer, their families and staff.”

Having applied the guillotine in accordance with Standing Order 9.1, the Council did not debate this matter.

The amendment was put and lost (19:39) (One abstention).

The substantive motion was then put, and it was –

Resolved (58:0) (One abstention) –

Council notes that we are seeing unprecedented disruption to cancer services on the Wirral, in the Liverpool City Region and across England.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, thousands of vital cancer treatments, appointments, and care were postponed or cancelled. People in desperate need of help are still unable to access the support they need and the emotional impact of delays is contributing to a crisis in mental health.

Cancer Research has seen hundreds of millions of pounds lost from its budget and a similar amount of charity donations that usually prop up the research system has been unforthcoming as people struggle financially.

We are lucky on the Wirral that we have two world class Cancer Centres on our doorstep, but even here there are residents who have had operations and treatments postponed or suspended. In areas less well served, residents are not even being referred from their GPs to an Oncology Centre. The result of all this inaction means cancers are being caught later, sometimes too late to avoid preventable death.

Council believes that cancer should not be forgotten during the COVID-19 pandemic and requests the Leader of the Council, Group Leaders and Senior Council Officers to write to the Government, demanding urgent action to deliver cancer recovery plans to prevent this happening, to clear the backlog and to get cancer services back on track.