 Our household waste recycling centres will re-open on Monday (18 May) – but only for waste that you cannot continue to store safely at home.
Please use your kerbside bins and bulky waste services run by your local and district borough council as you would normally do. And if you’re planning to visit one of our centres, check out these golden rules before you travel:
- Only travel to your local recycling centre if it is essential because you can’t continue to store waste safely at home without it causing injury or harm.
- Check which day you can access our recycling centres based on the last number on your vehicle registration plate – if it’s an odd number, you can visit on odd numbered days of the month and if it’s even you can visit on even numbered days.
- Avoid taking excessive amounts of waste and please don’t bring vans or trailers.
- Please be prepared to queue as social distancing measures mean fewer vehicles will be allowed on site at any one time.
- Wear protective gloves, appropriate footwear and clothing and only bring what you can safely handle. Staff can’t carry your waste as they normally would.
- Visit on your own – unless you need another adult from your household to help carry your waste.
- Stay at least 2 metres away from staff and other users and wash your hands when you get home.
- Stay at home if you have had coronavirus symptoms in the last 14 days, are self-isolating or at high risk of contracting the virus.
This week we re-opened car parks at our council-run countryside sites.
This decision was also made in line with the latest government guidance on coronavirus which eased restrictions on visiting parks and daily exercise.
However the following facilities will remain closed:
- Toilets
- Shops, cafes and visitor centres
- Ice cream vans and concessions
- Play equipment and outdoor gym equipment
- Hire of all terrain mobility scooters and bikes
It is important visitors follow social distancing rules and stay at least 2 metres away from anyone not in their household. We also urge visitors to take litter home with them and keep dogs on leads at all times.
If our sites become too crowded for social distancing to be carried out then visitor numbers might have to be restricted.
For more information on our countryside sites visit www.derbyshire.gov.uk/countrysidesites
Thank you for your co-operation and understanding, we all have a role to play in keeping Derbyshire safe.
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Our brand new state-of-the-art Ada Belfield care home in Belper is to be used to help support Derbyshire residents through the coronavirus pandemic.
The new care centre will temporarily be called the Florence Nightingale Home and is now almost complete and getting ready to take its first residents.
The care centre – which is part of a larger £10m development that includes a new library for the town – will initially be used to exclusively accept patients discharged from hospital who need to rest, recuperate and isolate after suffering from coronavirus but aren’t yet ready to go home.
Plans to open it as a conventional care home are temporarily on hold in the short term while we support the wider healthcare system, and then afterwards ensure residents of the existing Ada Belfield home can be safely transferred to the new home in the coming months.
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This week saw the launch of Foster Care Fortnight – a national campaign which aims to help councils like us recruit more foster carers and highlight the essential work they do to look after the children in our care.
You can join us in showing support for the campaign on social media, like our Cabinet Member for Young People Councillor Alex Dale, by using the #ThisIsFostering and #FCF20 hashtags. Under the hashtags you can find some inspirational stories on how fostering can change lives for children and young people – and the lives of carers too.
We need foster carers to look after vulnerable children in our care now more than ever as the coronavirus outbreak and the impact of self-isolation has made some children even more vulnerable and we want to ensure we have enough carers available when children need them.
We work within Government guidelines to put health and safety first, are using video-call technology to get new foster carer assessments underway and offer our foster carers training, support, a wide range of benefits and a competitive package of financial support one they’re approved.
Foster carers don’t need any special qualification and can be from all walks of life. They just need to be aged 21 or over with no upper age limit, have a spare room and go through some checks with our friendly team to make sure fostering is right for them before they’re assessed.
Our foster carers so an amazing job – find out how you could transform a child’s life and change yours too.
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We’ve teamed up with Chatsworth Estate to show Derbyshire Spirit in action by offering free accommodation to frontline NHS workers.
Our Council Leader Councillor Barry Lewis has agreed with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire to support the offering of three Chatsworth holiday cottages free of charge to NHS workers.
Frontline NHS workers who need to isolate from family members, or be closer to their place of work to accommodate shift patterns, can apply to stay in one of the cottages by sending an email from their NHS email address to us at derbyshirespirit@derbyshire.gov.uk with the name and organisation they work for.
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 Please help to spread the word in your local communities that we are still awarding Action Grants to support community groups, clubs and charities but the final round closes 31 May.
For some groups the money could help them to get back on their feet when the coronavirus pandemic is over.
The grants are mostly up to £500 but there are a small number of £5,000 and £10,000 grants also available in the final round as well. There are four categories to apply to – community safety, youth activity, physical activity and sport and community activity. Please note that there are no £500 grants left in the community activity category.
Where grants have been awarded in previous rounds for activities that were due to take place this year but have had to be cancelled, the money can be carried over until 2021.
This week we marked the bicentary of the birth of Florence Nightingale by honouring nurses and care workers who continue to work under difficult circumstances to care for people during the coronavirus outbreak.
The World Health Organisation have declared 2020 the Year of the Nurse and Midwife to mark the bicentary of Florence, who spent much of her life in Derbyshire.
Born on the 12 May, Florence is remembered for being the founder of modern nursing and similiarities can be drawn between her work and the commitment and dedication being shown by key workers across the county at this time.
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 Erewash Voluntary Action is just one of the organisations providing lots of support and help for local residents with the help of their wonderful volunteers.
The group help their community out with food shopping, collecting prescriptions and keeping people connected through a simple phone call.
Pictured is manager Linda Brown and volunteer shopper Cassie. Thank you for sharing your Derbyshire Spirit with us!
Keep your tales of Derbyshire Spirit coming. You can send your pictures, stories and videos to derbyshirespirit@derbyshire.gov.uk. Don’t forget to use #DerbyshireSpirit on social media.
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