Last week’s news from South Staffordshire Council.

• Update on Council services
The last few weeks have been a challenging time for everyone and our teams are going above and beyond to keep council services running, although sometimes delivered in a slightly different way to ensure social distancing guidelines are followed. We know it is appreciated by residents and thank you for your support and showing your appreciation. Here’s an update on council services along with an overview of some of the important work being carried out by our teams.

o Over 400 applications for Business Grant payments have now been processed, providing almost £5 million of welcomed relief for businesses in the district. Applications are being processed within a couple of days of receipt and the Council has received many compliments from the business community. For more information about business support and how to apply for a small business grant, click here.

o Housing Benefit applications are being processed within 12 calendar days to provide support to those in need in district.

o All Street Scene work and scheduled waste and recycling collections are taking place as normal and if you follow the Council’s Facebook and Twitter social media accounts, you’ll have seen the fantastic response from our residents thanking the crews.

o The South Staffordshire COVID-19 helpline was manned throughout the Easter break and has received over 100 calls so far. This helpline is available to all residents in the district, providing an essential service for some of our most vulnerable residents and prioritising those over 70 or under 70 with underlying health conditions, self-isolating but with no friends, family or neighbours to help. Please contact the helpline if you need help with collecting prescriptions, shopping, topping up gas or electricity meters, dog walking, or if you’re feeling anxious or lonely and need to talk to someone.

The helpline is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Tel: 01902 696499 Email: Covid-19@sstaffs.gov.uk

o Our Environmental Health and Licensing team continues to monitor businesses and compliance with COVID-19 regulations. Over 250 site premise visits have taken place since the lockdown and the team has even rehomed a rescue hedgehog although, unfortunately, he’s run away already.

o Baggeridge Country Park remains open and we are monitoring it on a daily basis. All amenities on site are closed and visitors are asked to abide by the recommended social distancing guidelines and keep at least two metres (six ft) away from other people. Car parking capacity has been reduced to 30 cars at any one time.

o Strawberry Lane and Sytch Lane Cemeteries remain open on a daily basis from 9am to 8pm. Again, visitors are asked to abide by the recommended social distancing guidelines. If you have any queries relating to our cemeteries and funerals please contact us on 01902 696405.

o The Leisure Centres in Cheslyn Hay, Codsall, Penkridge and Wombourne are closed but please follow their Facebook pages for information about activities you can participate in via the internet and social media.

o The Council Offices remain closed. If you have any queries, please email info@sstaffs.gov.uk or telephone 01902 696000.

• Council Plan 2020-2024
The Council’s corporate plan for 2020-2024 has now been approved by Full Council. Entitled ‘Shaping South Staffordshire’s future’, the plan is a very important document as it outlines the strategic direction of the Council and sets out its vision and priorities for the next four years. Its vision will be delivered through two priority areas that are divided into ‘Prosperous Communities’ and ‘Vibrant Communities’. Each priority area has five key objectives and outcomes, and each of these is supported in its delivery by five key themes including financial stability, embracing technology, a flexible and skilled Council, working with our communities, and creating a business and community hub.

Click here to download a copy.

• May PFCC elections postponed
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner elections scheduled to take place on Thursday 7 May 2020 have now been postponed until next year and will take place on Thursday 6 May 2021. Commissioners elected in 2021 will be in office for three years, not the usual four.

• Financial advice and assistance
As a result of the impact of coronavirus, we know some residents may find themselves with reduced levels of income and there are a number of actions we have taken as a council to help residents.

o Council Tax – If you are on a 10-monthly instalment plan, you can amend payments so that they start in June 2020 and end in March 2021. If you are on a 12-montly instalment plan you can agree a flexible payment arrangement where you can pay a reduced amount in April and May 2020 or you can change your payment plan to a 10-montly instalment plan and start paying in June 2020.
o Suspension of debt recovery – The Council will not be undertaking any debt recovery between now and the end of April 2020 and will assess the situation then.

• Beware of fraud and cybercrime
We’re continuing to see an escalation in cybercrime and fraud in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Criminals are experts at impersonating people, organisations and the police and taking a moment to stop and think before parting with your money or information could keep you safe. Please be on your guard and don’t click on links or attachments in suspicious email or text messages. Click here for more information or visit www.actionfraud.police.uk.

• Domestic abuse – support available
Domestic abuse can often get worse during times of stress and uncertainty. If you are in an abusive relationship and need help, there are a number of organisations who can help and here are some useful telephone numbers.

National Domestic Violence Helpline: 0808 2000 3778 (24 hours)

New Era, a domestic violence abuse service offering help to all those affected by domestic abuse in Staffordshire
Tel: 0300 303 3778

Home

• Stay home to help save lives
Remember to maintain social distancing measures and keep at least two metres away from other people to avoid catching or spreading coronavirus. Right now, the safest place to be is at home. To help reduce the risk of catching or spreading coronavirus, please continue to follow the advice from Public Health England and the NHS.

o Wash your hands more often.
o Use soap and water for 20 seconds.
o Or use hand sanitiser.

Follow official NHS advice at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

• What to do if you have symptoms?
COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus that can affect your lungs and airways. Symptoms include a new, continuous cough, a high temperature (37.8 degrees or higher) and shortness of breath. These symptoms do not necessarily mean you have the illness and the symptoms are similar to other illnesses that are much more common such as cold and flu.

If you have symptoms of COVID-19, self-isolate at home immediately and do not go directly to your GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital. If you live alone, self-isolate for seven days and for those with a family it is 14 days. For most people COVID-19 will be a mild illness but there is a need to protect others in your community while you are infectious as older people and others with weakened immune systems or with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease may experience severe illness.

To relieve your symptoms, doctors are advising stay-at-home COVID-19 patients to take whatever they would for a cold such as paracetamol, eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables and drink lots of fluids. If your symptoms worsen during home isolation or are no better after seven days, contact the NHS online coronavirus service at https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19 or call 111 if you cannot get help online.

• Manage your health and wellbeing at home
While you are at home it’s still easy to get NHS help using your smartphone, tablet or computer and there’s a new Health at Home webpage at https://www.nhs.uk/health-at-home/

This webpage contains information about how to:
o Contact your GP.
o Order repeat prescriptions.
o Manage long-term conditions.
o Maintain your mental and physical wellbeing.

If you need to contact your GP, click here to view a useful video..

• Health and wellbeing in the home
A dedicated web page has been created on the Council’s Leisure website where customers and staff can access free online home workouts. The information contains advice and links signposting to other websites such as the NHS as well as links to YouTube channels including videos showcasing some of own instructors delivering sessions. For home workouts click here. We will be extending the list as our instructors continue to develop videos of home workouts.

In addition, this section includes additional pages to support people in general at home with advice on mental health and wellbeing, how to keep children active at home and how to work safely from home. Content is being developed and added all the time so please check back regularly. Click here to view.

• Wombourne Leisure Centre
Click here to view a short video that staff from Wombourne Leisure Centre have created for their customers in attempt to keep everyone smiling.

• Befriending service
If you are feeling lonely or would like someone to talk to, a friendly voice on the other end of the phone is now available. More information is available from Wendy Sutton on 01902 851682 or email w.sutton@sstaffs.gov.uk.

• Songs for you
Well done to Kenyon Walker who is leading virtual singalongs and bringing music to isolating elderly residents with the support of South Staffordshire Council and Care Plus. Click here to find out more and click here for the link to Kenyon’s Facebook page where over 200 people are watching him live every day.

• South Staffordshire Connect service available
The South Staffordshire Connect dial-a-ride bus service is now available.
This local, bookable bus service is once again helping many people
who struggle to get out and about and it is aimed at residents who live
away from regular bus routes or who find it difficult to use a standard
bus. The new Connect service operates between 10am and 3pm to
three zones. For more information, please click on the following for
more information – Zone 1, Zone 2 and Zone 3.

Everyone is encouraged to submit news items, please email: comms@sstaffs.gov.uk

This week’s news from South Staffordshire Council

• Stay home to help save lives
Remember to maintain social distancing measures this holiday weekend and keep at least two metres away from other people to avoid catching or spreading coronavirus. We’re expecting more good weather and people may be tempted to ignore official advice and spend more time outside. Right now, the safest place to be is at home.

To help reduce the risk of catching or spreading coronavirus, please continue to follow the advice from Public Health England and the NHS.
o Wash your hands more often.
o Use soap and water for 20 seconds.
o Or use hand sanitiser.

Follow official NHS advice at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

• Council services over the Easter break
o The Council Offices will remain closed. If you have any queries, please email info@sstaffs.gov.uk and we will be in touch on Tuesday.
o All scheduled waste and recycling collections will be taking place as normal on Friday and Monday.
o The COVID-19 helpline for vulnerable residents will be open over the Easter holiday weekend.
o Baggeridge Country Park remains open and we are monitoring it on a daily basis. All amenities on site are closed and visitors are asked to abide by the recommended social distancing guidelines and keep at least two metres (six ft) away from other people. Car parking capacity has been reduced to 30 cars at any one time.
o Strawberry Lane and Sytch Lane Cemeteries remain open on a daily basis from 9am to 8pm. Again, visitors are asked to abide by the recommended social distancing guidelines.
o The Leisure Centres in Cheslyn Hay, Codsall, Penkridge and Wombourne are closed but please follow their Facebook pages for information about activities you can participate in via the internet and social media.
o Our Environmental Health and Licensing team will continue to monitor businesses and compliance with COVID-19 regulations and liaise with the Police.
o Our other services will be closed until Tuesday but the Council always remains open for emergencies out of hours – call 01902 696000.

• COVID-19 helpline
If you are over 70 or under 70 with underlying health conditions, self-isolating but have no friends, family or neighbours to help, please contact the South Staffordshire COVID-19 helpline, your dedicated community support helpline. The helpline will be open over the Easter holiday weekend, 9am to 5pm.

Tel: 01902 696499
Email: Covid-19@sstaffs.gov.uk

Please only use this telephone number and email address if you are considered vulnerable and in this category. For any other customer enquiries, please contact our Customer Services team on 01902 696000 or email info@sstaffs.gov.uk, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

• Small business grants
Officers at the Council are working hard to process all applications for small business grants to ensure all eligible firms receive their funding as soon as possible. We will be making payments on a daily basis, in the order applications were received, and the first BACS payments commenced on Wednesday 8 April 2020. We hope to process each individual application within seven working days of submission, although there may be another two days before funds are cleared through the banking system. We will ensure no applications are omitted and that every single eligible firm receives the funding they are due as soon as practically possible. Thank you for your patience whilst we work to process several hundred separate applications.

For more information about business support and how to apply for a small business grant, click here.

• Beware of fraud and cybercrime
We’re continuing to see an escalation in cybercrime and fraud in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Criminals are experts at impersonating people, organisations and the police and taking a moment to stop and think before parting with your money or information could keep you safe. Please be on your guard and don’t click on links or attachments in suspicious email or text messages. Click here for more information or visit www.actionfraud.police.uk.

• Domestic abuse – support available
Domestic abuse can often get worse during times of stress and uncertainty. If you are in an abusive relationship and need help, there are a number of organisations who can help and here are some useful telephone numbers.

National Domestic Violence Helpline: 0808 2000 3778 (24 hours)

New Era, a domestic violence abuse service offering help to all those affected by domestic abuse in Staffordshire
Tel: 0300 303 3778

Home

• Health and wellbeing in the home
A dedicated web page has been created on the Council’s Leisure website where customers and staff can access free online home workouts. The information contains advice and links signposting to other websites such as the NHS as well as links to YouTube channels including videos showcasing some of own instructors delivering sessions. For home workouts click here. We will be extending the list as our instructors continue to develop videos of home workouts.

In addition, this section includes additional pages to support people in general at home with advice on mental health and wellbeing, how to keep children active at home and how to work safely from home. Content is being developed and added all the time so please check back regularly. Click here to view.

• South Staffordshire Connect service now available
The South Staffordshire Connect dial-a-ride bus service is now available.
This local, bookable bus service is once again helping many people
who struggle to get out and about and it is aimed at residents who live
away from regular bus routes or who find it difficult to use a standard
bus. The new Connect service operates between 10am and 3pm to
three zones. For more information, please click on the following for
more information – Zone 1, Zone 2 and Zone 3.

Everyone is encouraged to submit news items, please email: comms@sstaffs.gov.uk

Staffordshire Police have issued the following guidance to volunteers (Street Wardens) to follow –

All volunteers need to:
• either work alone if they can or be 2 meters apart
• wear gloves when handling food or medication
• ensure packages, boxes etc. are as clean as they can be
• have a letter or ID card to hand explaining their role of volunteering in the community
• the packages will just be for food and medication to those that are vulnerable and not able to get out themselves.

Please ensure that you have a printed copy of our email asking you to now become a Street Warden, or you can access the email on your phone if you are stopped by the Police.

If you have any queries, please call the Parish Council Office on 01902 896300.

Thank you to each and every one of you who signed up to volunteer to assist your local community – your kindness and support really is appreciated.

By now every household in Wombourne will have received a flyer with our contact details, some useful information, and the red/green I’m self-isolating cards for their windows.  

We now wish to move onto the second phase of supporting the elderly and/or vulnerable in our community by asking each of you to act as a Street Warden for your own street.

If on your daily walk you can check the houses in your own street to see if your neighbours are displaying the red ‘I’m self-isolating and need assistance’ card in their window, this would be a great help to us. If you see this card, please try to ascertain what assistance your neighbour requires (of course taking into account the Government’s advice around social distancing and keeping 2m apart), whether it be shopping or collecting a prescription etc. If you are able to safely assist your neighbor yourself, we would ask you to do that, otherwise, if you need to seek assistance from us, you can do so by calling in your neighbours’ details to us on 01902 896300 or by sending us an email with their name, address and telephone number to enquiries@wombourneparishcouncil.org.uk

Please may we remind you all to wash your hands regularly, use gloves where/if possible and please do not enter anyone else’s home – any shopping/medication should be left on your neighbours doorstep. This is a free service we are offering through yourselves as volunteers, therefore we would ask you to politely decline any cash/reward you may be offered for assisting your neighbour (they should only be paying for the goods they receive).

Stay safe and well, and once again, a huge thank you to you all – together we will come through this pandemic with an ever stronger sense of community spirit.

In response to feedback on social media, we have taken the decision to keep the equipment at Poolhouse Play Area and the gates at Bratch Park locked until further notice.

We would urge all parents to ensure that they and their children are following the Government’s advice on social distancing i.e. ensuring you are at least 2m apart and staying at home where possible.

Whilst it is difficult decision to keep our recreational facilities closed, we hope it will assist in the Government’s aim to slow the spread of the Coronavirus across our community.

If you have queries, please call the Parish Council Office on 01902 896300.

If anyone is made aware of someone vulnerable and/or alone who needs help, please ask them to call the Parish Council (or call us yourself) on 01902 896300, and we can arrange to get them some to them.

In the event of the Parish Council office being closed, a recorded message will give details of who they should contact.

Please, we would encourage you all to look out for your neighbours at this difficult time, especially those who are self isolating, whether it is collecting shopping for them, or just giving them a call so that they can hear a friendly voice.

Thank you.

In view of the current situation Wombourne Civic Centre will be closed with immediate effect for private functions, classes, meetings and to members of the public accessing the Parish Council Office, until further notice.

For those who have functions booked in at the Civic Centre in the forthcoming weeks, if you haven’t already spoken to a member of staff this week, they will be in touch with you from Monday onwards.

We shall be following the Government’s recommendations closely and if there are any changes to the advice given, we will of course review this decision. The Parish Council will keep you informed via this website and our social media pages.

The health and welfare of our hirers, staff and members of our community is our utmost priority at this difficult time.

The Parish Council staff will continue to work from the Civic Centre where possible during office hours so if you have any queries, please contact them on 01902 896300 or via email – enquiries@wombourneparishcouncil.org.uk

Tenants leasing office space are not affected by this decision to close the Civic Centre and can continue to access their offices for as long as the Government will allow.

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation.