Coronavirus (Covid-19) update - 3 April 2020
Welcome to the weekly Coronavirus (Covid-19) update for East Devon residents. We are working to keep you informed through this email update and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pages on our website, which have all our latest information, and links to the Government, the NHS and our community.
Please forward this email to anyone you think would find it useful and encourage them to sign up.
You can also can share this update on social media and in any online groups you're part of by using this link to the update on our website.
 This week's message from East Devon's Leader and Chief Executive
"It's fair to say that the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak is throwing up some pretty tough challenges for both the council and residents, requiring everyone to adapt and make important changes to our behaviour and the way we live.
"Despite the constantly evolving situation, there has been tremendous progress and activity here at East Devon District Council this week. Our staff are demonstrating amazing levels of resilience, commitment, agility and good old fashioned ‘bloody hard work’. Everyone is pitching in brilliantly and delivering great work across the council, ensuring you continue to receive vital services, as we contribute to the fight against coronavirus.
"Our Community Support Hub hotline and on-line forms are now available for local residents/communities who need help or support, or who want to volunteer their time and resources to help your local community. Our amazing Community Development team is doing a great job in answering calls for the Community Support Hub, while our brilliant Customer Service Centre, continues to take calls across all other services and provide access to advice about universal credit, council tax and other financial information.
"Finally, please continue to follow the Government's guidance. It is vital that people stay at home, because we need to protect the NHS, as this is how we will save lives.
"Stay safe and remember together #WeAreDevon
Councillor Ben Ingham, Leader
Mark Williams, Chief Executive
East Devon District Council Coronavirus Community Support Hub update
The Community Support Hub hotline and associated on-line forms are for local residents who need help or support, communities and organisations to access information and support, or volunteer their time and resources to help your local community. The Hub is for individuals or organisations requesting or offering personal support needs such as shopping, caring needs or medicine.The Hub has taken circa 45-55 calls each day.
Here is an example of a grateful caller who needed to arrange a food delivery for their mother.
"Thank you so much for sending through the leaflet. I contacted the Spar shop and they took a delivery round to my mother in law within 10 minutes of my call to them.
We are very relieved to know she has her essential items. They phoned me back to let me know they had made the delivery and they had noted her as vulnerable person on their priority list. Very grateful for your help today.’
"I just wanted to say 'thank you' for your support. It was lovely to receive the food parcel yesterday, the tea and milk were especially welcome. I shared the contents amongst some elderly neighbours who are also unable to shop. Excellent service and much appreciated."
Call the Community Support Hub Hotline if you need help
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If you, or a group you know, needs help or you would like to volunteer, call us now on 01395 571500
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The line is open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (exc Bank Holidays)
The hotline has been set up to help individuals who need support, and family, friends or neighbours can call if they are concerned about someone in their community who needs help.
Individuals or organisations can now request or offer community support by filling out one of our online forms.
Find out more about the East Devon District Council Coronavirus Community Support Hub on our website.
Interactive map - find your nearest local community group
Devon County Council has launched a new interactive map earlier this week to show you where your nearest local community group is, that can help if you need support during this period of self-isolation and staying in. They have now got more than 300 community groups listed. Find out which groups are operating near you, and if you need support please let them know. To add a local group that is missing, please pass your details to us using this form.
How to help others safely
Here in East Devon we are hearing lots of stories about how people across the district are helping each other. It's important that everyone follows Govement guidance on how to help safely to ensure that both the helper and the person being assisted stay protected.
Community Contacts
Find out more about East Devon's fantastic community groups who are getting together to help support their residents through the Coronavirus (Covid-19) situation.This guide contains information from our main towns on how you can get help from or offer help to the community.
Request Financial Support
You can now request financial support if you have been affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. Please check our Council Tax and Benefits Coronavirus FAQ page for more information.
Support for disabled people
A joint statement from Justin Tomlinson MP, Helen Whately MP and Vicky Ford MP outlines how the government plans to support disabled people, their carers, and their families during the coronavirus outbreak.
Coronavirus - stay home - protect the NHS - save lives
Following the Prime Minister's announcement on Monday evening, we should all be staying at home and only going out for the following reasons:
- To buy food or medicine
- To attend health appointments
- To take exercise
- or for essential work that cannot be done at home.
If you must go out, make sure you stay two metres (6ft) away from other people and wash your hands as soon as you get home.
Full guidance from the government on staying at home and away from others.
Recycling and waste
Please help our crews!
We are collecting much higher than normal amounts of waste and recycling as everyone is staying at home under Government guidance. If you are taking the opportunity to have a household clear out or are producing much more recycling at home than normal try storing some of the dry materials and put them out for collection over a number of collections. You could also try some of our managing waste tips.
Our crews are working very hard to maintain your collections in these difficult times and this would help them greatly. Keep checking our Recycling and Waste pages for further updates. Thank you.
Parking issues on collection days
Please could we ask people to park more considerately to enable our refuse and recycling crews to complete their collections? With more and more people now staying at home, our bin crews are having problems accessing some roads due to cars parked inconsiderately. They'd really appreciate people being mindful of this problem when parking on collection days - it's so important that we keep this essential service operating. Thank you.
Food parcel deliveries to the extremely vulnerable
This is an evolving situation and we have had to adapt at relatively short notice to changing expectations. In terms of the emergency food parcel deliveries, so far we have been asked to deliver 15 parcels, which have been distributed by our own staff in East Devon liveried vehicles (on the basis that this is essential travel). We are expecting further requests to come.
Housing
Home Safeguard
Home Safeguard operators are working tirelessly to ensure we continue to run a 24/7 service to keep vulnerable residents safe. They are taking a pro-active approach to contacting our private home safeguard alarm customers to check on their needs and requirements.
Homelessness
We are seeing an increase in homelessness approaches and our Housing Options team is dealing with complex, difficult cases from a variety of sources including sudden hospital discharges of very vulnerable people that are having to be dealt with urgently. A number of households/individuals have had to be placed in emergency accommodation over the past week and the challenges of finding somewhere suitable for them is far from straight forward. In line with Government guidance, we are prioritising any reports we receive in relation to rough sleeping to ensure we have no rough sleepers in the District. We are working closely with Partner Agencies including the Police on individual cases.
Mobile Support
East Devon's Mobile Support Officers are increasing their contact with tenants of our sheltered housing during the Coronavirus epidemic.
Supporting vulnerable tenants who live in our sheltered accommodation is a priority area for us and we will continue to offer support throughout the period of the Coronavirus epidemic.
To protect our customers and Mobile Support Officers we are not currently visiting tenants in their homes unless this is absolutely necessary, but to make up for this we are contacting them by telephone more frequently than we would normally.
Paying your rent
If you are a vulnerable person and are unable to get out to pay your rent or charges due to Coronavirus, please contact Housing Rental on 01395 517444 to discuss options of how to make payments.
Repairs and maintenance
Our gas servicing procedures have been updated during the Coronavirus outbreak. See our repairs and maintenance pages for more information. Our team is doing a great job, ensuring our gas compliance checks are still being undertaken as we remain focused on ensuring our Legislative work is prioritised. This ensures the safety of our tenants, but it is challenging work due to increasing issues around being able to access properties.
If you have a genuine emergency repair (such as loss of electricity, water or heating) you can contact us on 01395 517458.
Public Sector Housing
The Government has issued advice for renters during the Coronavirus pandemic.
See the East Devon landlord and tenant advice page and GOV.UK for more information.
Business support
The Government's Small and Rural Business Grant Scheme and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure grant scheme is now live. We have already received 1512 submissions, of which 522 have been passed for payment – so at least £5m has been approved for payment. We've received a good response rate of 38% and have had lots of positive feedback from businesses who have contacted us.
Find out how to apply for a Business Grant from the two schemes, which the Government has launched:
- Scheme 1: Small Business Grant Fund
- Scheme 2: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grant Fund
If you want to apply go to the Coronavirus Business Support Grant page.
An FAQ page on this topic has also been published for further guidance.
You can read our weekly Business update on the East Devon website.
Council meetings
From Saturday (4 April 2020), local authorities in England have been handed new powers to hold public meetings virtually by using video or telephone conferencing technology
The government has temporarily removed the legal requirement for local authorities to hold public meetings in person during the coronavirus pandemic. This will enable us to make effective and transparent decisions on the delivery of services for residents and ensure that local democracy continues to thrive.
The change applies to all local authorities in England and covers all categories of public meetings including annual meetings, cabinet and committee meetings.
The requirement for public meetings to be made accessible to the public remains, but it will be up to each local authority to decide how they conduct meetings, how voting procedures work and how to ensure that the public has access. More information is available on the GOV.UK website.
Warning of scams
Devon, Somerset and Torbay Trading Standards Service has issued a warning to local residents and businesses to be aware of fraudsters who are trying to exploit fear and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. There's been an increase in scams that include counterfeit medical kits that claim to prevent or cure the disease and fake online coronavirus resources which can contain damaging software. Counterfeit goods such as hand sanitiser, face masks and swabbing kits are also being widely advertised online.
Financial scams, both online and by telephone, have also increased as criminals seek to take advantage of the financial uncertainty many people and businesses face due to the coronavirus. Check our Beware of scams page for useful links and more information.
Landlords, Agents and Tenants
The Government has issued advice on self-isolation and social distancing for landlords, agents and tenants during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Support for Domestic Violence victims
Guidance has been published to support victims of domestic violence during the Coronavirus outbreak, including where to get help and information on safe-accommodation settings.
Looking after your mental wellbeing
The World Health Organisation has said physical health is crucial to chances of recovering from coronavirus and has emphasised that during lockdown we must make every effort we can to be as active as possible.
Read our guide to Taking Care of Your Mental Health and Wellbeing which is packed with resources from 10 minute work outs to help with anxiety and even financial matters. Take a look and please pass on to your friends and family who may also find some of this information useful.
There are many simple things you can do to help you stay mentally and physically active such as:
- look for ideas of exercises you can do at home on the NHS website
- spend time doing things you enjoy – this might include reading, cooking, other indoor hobbies or listening to the radio or watching TV programmes
- try to eat healthy, well-balanced meals, drink enough water and try to avoid smoking, alcohol and drugs
- keep your windows open to let in fresh air, get some natural sunlight if you can, or get outside into the garden
- You can also go for a walk or exercise outdoors if you stay more than 2 metres from others.
Fun activities to do at home
RSPB games and activities - lots of fun activities, games to play and things to make while learning about nature
Devon Wildlife have some excellent activity sheets to downloand and try as a family - they say there are still lots of ways that you can help wildlife during the pandemic.
Some lovely gardening tips and advice from the RHS
The Woodland Trust has some great nature activities to do at home
Sidmouth Folk Festival cancelled (31 July to 7 Aug 2020)
The organisers of Sidmouth Folk Festival have taken the decision to cancel this year’s Sidmouth Folk Festival for the well-being of all involved. Plans are already underway for the 2021 Festival (30 July to 6 August) and all 2020 ticket buyers will be contacted directly over the next few weeks with a variety of ticket rollover and refund options. They have asked for people's understanding while they get all the necessary arrangements in place. Please keep checking the Sidmouth Folk Festival website for any new developments.
Trusted sources of advice and information
Please make sure that you only follow advice from trusted, official sources:
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