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Cheshire West and Neston Response to COVID-19
| Published: 20th March 2020 08:47 |
In recent days, Cheshire West and Chester Council have announced that most public buildings will close from Friday 20 March until May 31st. This includes all council-run leisure centres, libraries and municipal buildings.
In addition, garden waste collections will be suspended, in order to focus resources on maintaining a regular household refuse collection service.
Register offices remain open for appointments to register births, deaths and marriages and for pre-arranged ceremonies only.
In Neston, the Town Hall and Market are managed by Neston Town Council, who are holding an extraordinary meeting today and will be announcing their measures after that. Neston Community Youth Centre is also separate to CWAC, run by a charity. Its board has already cancelled all public activities in the Centre, but is utilising the building to co-ordinate a community response.
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Cllr Louise Gittins, Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council and member for Little Neston, now updates us on the Council's response to the current crisis:
Across the UK the virus, and our response to it, has moved into the ‘delay' phase. The Council is at the forefront of the response. We are working closely with PHE, the NHS and other key partners and we are well prepared to deal with Coronavirus.
We are part of a network of public bodies, working together to ensure we protect the public and defeat the virus over time. We are working closely with partners in the NHS and our care services to ensure the most vulnerable people are protected as far as possible. We are in regular contact with Public Health England and the Chief Medical Officer. Within the Council, we have an Emergency Management and Response Team, led by our Director of Public Health, Ian Ashworth.
All Councillors will be kept up to date on a daily basis, so they can play important leadership role in their communities.
Staff welfare and continuity
The Council now has an up-to-date Business Continuity Plan to help us manage the next few weeks and months. We can expect a higher proportion of our council staff to be off work. This will place pressure on all of us. We will reduce the pressures from non-urgent work, and make sure that staff welfare is paramount. We may need to ask colleagues to be flexible in working across departments to deliver the most critical services for our most vulnerable residents.
The Council has invested significantly in flexible and mobile working and following the latest Government advice, we are advising staff and councillors to work from home, wherever possible, to protect our staff base, their families and the wider public. It will also help to mitigate the risk to those that work on the frontline, often with our most vulnerable residents, and don't have the option to work remotely. This action is vital to reduce their risk of infection from other staff members and enable them to carry on their essential and important work.
All non-essential meetings will be postponed during this time.
Please be reassured that we are taking decisions, based on the most up to date Government guidance. This means, that we may need to take further difficult decisions in the weeks ahead. However, all these decisions will be in the vest best interest of our residents and will help stop the spread and protect the most vulnerable in our borough.
Getting involved
So many people have been asking 'what can we do to help?' We need to get this right and that's why we are working closely with the voluntary and community sector, including Cheshire West Voluntary Action (CWVA), Age UK and others to coordinate a community response to COVID-19. We have set up a webpage to enable people and businesses who want to help their local community get in touch and offer their support. They will signposted to the opportunities available with local charities and community groups. This will all link in with communities coming together to ‘Play your Part'.
(In Neston, this aspect of the response is being spearheaded by Neston Community Youth Centre, please see their website for updates.)
This is an enormous task - we know there are an army of people and businesses waiting to mobilise to help in our collective fight against this virus, and I'd like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart, the response is overwhelming.
Keeping safe
I hope everyone is now aware of the advice on how to limit the spread of the virus.
It is absolutely crucial we follow PHE and NHS guidance to the letter: no ifs no buts. So for example the stay at home guidance has also changed. If you live alone and have symptoms of coronavirus illness (COVID-19), however mild, stay at home for 7 days from when your symptoms start. A reminder those symptoms are a fever and or a new dry persistent cough.
If you live with others and you or one of them have symptoms of coronavirus, then all household members must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14 day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill. This will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community.
For anyone in the household who starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for 7 days from when the symptoms appeared, regardless of what day they are on in the original 14 day isolation period.
Detailed information on this can be found on the Government website.
Our Council website has the most up to date information and guidance, and may I stress the washing your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds is still vitally important to help stop the spread of the virus. Social distancing is also vital.
You can also access a range of advice, including health, care, food and shopping and more, from this webpage.
Creative isolation is the theme for this webpage, offering lots of ideas to keep your mind and body active and healthy during the current situation.
We all have concerns about ourselves, our families, our colleagues and our communities. It is at times like these that the ethos of public service shines through. We can be proud that councillors and staff of Cheshire West and Chester Council will make a massive contribution to defeating this virus and supporting our communities and businesses at this difficult time.
Additional information
Burton
The community response is being led by Gladstone Village Hall and St Nicholas' Church. Please use the hotline for any enquiries: 0151 665 0867.
Puddington
Puddington & Burton Facebook page
Willaston
Pollards Inn are co-ordinating the village response. Please see their website for details.
Transport
There are changes to public transport during the current situation. Check the following links for details:
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Comments
SnapdragonCO JonesI suppose the message is, we can normally cope with fortnightly collections so why would that be any different now?
Dave CarterCO JonesDave CarterYou need to log in before you can do that! It's only a quick registration process to join the AMA network and completely free.
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