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As most businesses await news of further guidance on how to run their shops, cafes, restaurants and more, we thought we would get the ball rolling with a quick and easy, top 10 reminders before re-opening.
Put together by our business services and regulatory teams, we hope you will find this useful to slowly start thinking about business as usual:
1) Insurance - Please check that any insurance pertaining to your premises has been re-activated or renewed - you can check this directly with your provider.
2) Legionella - Businesses which have been closed and not in use must ensure they include the safety of their water systems in their reopening check lists. Legionnaires Disease is found in hot and cold water systems and as a business owner you have a duty to ensure the risk is managed correctly. For advice on what you should be doing please refer to https://www.cieh.org/media/4208/legionella-guidance-covid-19.pdf
3) Alcohol Licence - If you are thinking of selling alcohol in an outdoor area or selling hot food/drinks after 11pm, please check your premises licence including the licensed area marked on the plan. Your outdoor area will require a licence for this activity.
4) Pavement Licence - If you wish to utilise the pavement outside your premises (and it is a designated highway, not private land) for tables, seating or other furniture, you may require a pavement licence. You can find more information about this process at Pavement licence together with the policy and conditions of licence. If you already hold a licence from Cumbria County Council, it will not be necessary for you to apply to Allerdale. Any premises or pavement licence enquiries can be sent to licensing@allerdale.gov.uk or by contacting 0303 123 1702.
4) Waste disposal - Ensure you have renewed or reactivated your waste disposal contract. You can find out more about out trade waste services on our website. Please remember that businesses cannot use the recycling bring sites located at various places around the borough. These are for residents to use.
5) Covid Risk assessment - Review your Covid risk assessment and ensure staff are aware and trained in the changes – an example template can be found on the HSE website.
6) Control customer flow - As part of the Covid risk assessment, please think about how you will control the flow of customers. For example, people coming in and out for the use of toilets, how you will require people to pay and where and how you will ensure people queue outside adhering to social distancing rules. There are guidelines in place but each individual premises will need to ensure it is set up in the best possible way for their situation.
7) Cleaning - Ensure to carry out a deep clean of your Kitchen ready for trading and disinfect (recommend BS EN 1276) all surfaces, products, handles etc - before re-opening and subsequently after opening.
8) Date coding - If you are a food premises, carry out stock rotation and discard out of date products as necessary.
9) Hands - Face - Space - Ensure that you keep up to date with the most current guidance regarding hand sanitising, wearing of face coverings and social distancing requirements https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus.
10) Workplace Pack - Public Health England have also put together a 'Workplace Pack' in order to support and help businesses with the management of covid cases in the work setting. It would be handy to keep close by, should the need arise. You can find this pack here.
For the most up to date guidance and advice, please visit the gov.uk website. When specific guidelines have been released, this is where you will find it first. We will of course update our website as soon as we have also been advised by central government.
If you have any questions and cannot find the answer on the Allerdale Borough Council or Gov.uk websites, please email environmental.health@allerdale.gov.uk where we will be happy to help
Our Environmental Health team have been continuing their work ensuring our local businesses are as informed as they possibly can be with all the new rules coming into place, mirroring the roadmap out of lockdown.
This last week, most schools went back into the classroom so our EHO's are making sure any shops and post offices that are on routes to and from school or near by, are as prepared as they can be for a potentially busier few weeks. This includes making sure hand sanitizer, face coverings and queueing systems are all in place, as well as other vital processes.
Queue management has been a particular focus for the team and although each individual premises will be able to accommodate queueing systems differently, they must all have one in place.
There have been no major issues reported and the better businesses are prepared now before more restrictions are reduced, the better it will be when we can shop, eat and visit at all our wonderful businesses as we did before.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industry put together some helpful slides for businesses to use as action points when adapting to the changes Brexit has brought with it. Please click on the links below for some useful explainers on what to do next:
Post Transition Actions for Businesses
Brexit Transition Changes - Actions for Businesses (part a)
Sector Specific Brexit Transitions Actions (part b)
Rules of Origin for Trading with the EU - Explainer for SMEs
You may remember a couple of weeks ago we promoted a webinar the Police and Crime Commissioner, Slave Free Alliance and Hope for Justice were hosting on how to detect Modern Slavery in the workplace.
Due to the high interest and engagement the webinar had, the PCC are pleased to announce two further webinars: the first on awareness in the rural and agricultural communities and the second is awareness in the business supply chain.
If you are interested in one or both of these webinars, please follow the links below and register now.
Cumbria County Council will be hosting a week long jobs fair from the 22nd - 25th March which will include a range of workshops, guest speakers and a Q&A session.
The days will consist of two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, covering a wide range of career paths, health and wellbeing, apprenticeships and interview techniques. These workshops are aimed for all individuals above the age of 18.
For further details and to book a place, please visit: https://adultlearning.cumbria.gov.uk
Cumbria Tourism are project partners for the new 'Cycle England' project, led by Welcome to Yorkshire through VisitEngland’s Discover England Fund. The project aims to capitalise on the growing popularity of cycling in Yorkshire, Cumbria, Lincolnshire and Northumberland by targeting key domestic and international markets.
Cumbrian cycling routes promoted by the project include: Hadrian’s Cycleway, Lakes and Dales Loop, Walney to Wear/Whitby and the Coast to Coast.
CT are therefore hosting two free workshops this month aimed at accommodation businesses. These will provide information and insights into how you can improve your offer to this market as well as to help you:
- Appreciate the character and value of this market.
- Identify cyclists' needs & expectations.
- Understand customer expectations in a current/post Covid climate.
- Identify & capitalise on opportunities.
- Take practical steps to develop your business.
- Market effectively.
The workshops will be taking place on Tuesday 16th March 1:30pm - 4:30pm and Thursday 25th March 1:30pm - 4:30pm. Please register your interest along with your preferred date by emailing campaigns@cumbriatourism.org.
Attendance is free of charge, but please note due to limited availability a charge of £20+VAT will be incurred for non-attendance.
On Wednesday, 10th March the government announced, along with many other important things, the new Sustainable Farming Incentive encouraging Britain's farmers to take the first steps towards a greener future.
As part of the next step in the Government’s landmark plans to reward farmers and land managers for sustainable farming practices, farmers are being encouraged to take part in the pilot scheme with the expression of interest form being released today. The government website describes the scheme below;
"The Sustainable Farming Incentive will support approaches to farming that deliver for the environment, such as actions to improve soil health, hedgerows and integrated pest management. For example, a farmer might be paid to manage and plant hedgerows to provide year-round food, shelter and breeding cover for birds and insects, or take actions to boost the levels of organic matter in soils.
The pilot will build on the great success of the ongoing programme of tests and trials, which already involve over 3,000 farmers and other land managers. Tests and trials focus on trying out individual parts of the future scheme, like land management plans or different payment methods – whereas the pilot will test a working version of the scheme from start to finish."
For more information on this and the other two farming initiatives the government have been working on, please click here.
The latest podcast from the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce reviews the 2021 budget with Chamber MD Suzanne Caldwell and Amy Johnston and Sue Jeffrey of accountant David Allen.
And remember - Thanks to funding from Allerdale Borough Council, new support is available to businesses in the Allerdale area through Cumbria Chamber of Commerce & Cumbria Business Growth Hub.
Allerdale businesses can choose from the two support packages. The first is free Cumbria Chamber of Commerce membership for businesses with up to 10 employees for one year, subsidised for companies with over 10 employees. This gives access to free 1-2-1 professional legal, HR and tax advice from dedicated professionals.
Full details are available on the Chamber website.
To access support, businesses can email info@cumbriagrowthhub.co.uk
New trustees join Kirkgate Arts - Four new trustees have been appointed at a popular Cockermouth charity as it prepares to reopen to the public later this year.
The four responded to a recruitment drive by and Heritage last autumn. The charity runs the Kirkgate community venue which is home to a diverse range of social and entertainment activities.
It also runs Cockermouth heritage group, Arts Out Wide, an online offering, and Arts Out West, the project that helps village halls put on shows by professional musicians, entertainers, theatre companies and dance groups.
The new trustees are Cockermouth residents Andy Semple and Sue Moses, Nanette Rigg of Blindcrake and Duncan Nicholson of Dearham.
Mr Semple is a retired senior manager at Cumbria’s Job Centres and is now a Cockermouth Town and Allerdale Borough councillor. Read more here.
Leading fashion designer joins The Lake District Foundation as ambassador - Lee Paton is a bespoke couturier who has his own fashion house in London and is currently creating the first couture fashion house in Cumbria.
He grew up in Cumbria, trained at London College of Fashion, interned at Alexander McQueen and then worked on the famous London’s Savile Row. He launched his own fashion house in 2010 and the brand’s work has been featured in many British and overseas publications including Vogue, Tatler, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, Elle and The Financial Times.
His clients are high-profile and include elite sportsmen and sportswomen, well-known musicians and actors to the members of several international royal families.
He is currently moving his business to Cumbria and has aspirations to develop the first Cumbria couture fashion house. Read more here.
Carnegie Theatre & Arts Centre continue Music centre during lockdown - The Music Centre has managed to continue through the Lockdowns, due to Zoom based lessons, but everyone is itching to get back in the building and back to normal lessons.
Participants have been able to continue to work towards their arts award. Students can also access music theatre exams through Music Centre too.
The Music Centre is for youngsters aged 8-18, and gives them a chance to try different instruments before settling on what they'd like to pursue. Sound like something your kids would be interested in? Give the theatre a call on 01900 602122 and they can put you in touch with the right tutor.
Cumbria Tourism’s key Strategic Partners Thomson Hayton Winkley will be holding a special webinar this Thursday 18th March, to help you navigate your way through some of the legal issues and challenges facing your business ahead of reopening – and beyond.
Cumbria Chamber of Commerce is hosting a ‘Post-Brexit Import and Export Procedures’ online workshop, delivered by Mark Rowbotham of Portcullis, on Friday, 26th March between 10am-12.30pm. The session will take you through the basics of post-Brexit import and export procedures, including commercial, transport and customs documentations. Mark will also explain the stages in exporting and importing goods to and from the UK (in particular trading with the EU), cargo pre-clearance, T1 status, export customs declarations, import requirements, import duties and VAT and import and export transaction record keeping. To register click here.
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