Our Leader and Chief Executive welcome the continued rollout of vaccinations in the area, the work being done on community testing and the impact of lockdown on schools. In their letter to the community they state:

"The coronavirus vaccination programme has been making headlines for some time now, and it was great to read this week about the latest facility to open here in West Berkshire. The new vaccination centre at Newbury Racecourse will be able to inoculate up to 1,500 people a day, and it started yesterday with people in the over-80s group first in the queue for a jab. Vaccinations for care home residents and critical workers started a little while ago, and the roll out now into the wider community is something we are very pleased to see."

Read more in the full Weeknotes here.

Around 1 in 3 people who have coronavirus have no symptoms and will be spreading it without realising it.

Therefore, the rapid Covid-19 testing programme - called "Lateral Flow Testing" - is now testing people who are showing no symptoms (called ‘asymptomatic’). This will help the NHS find people who are infected but unaware they might be spreading the virus.

The test being used is called a Lateral Flow Test. This delivers the results in about 30 minutes, so you will see it being referred to as the "rapid Covid-19" test.

In West Berkshire, these tests will first be offered to critical and key workers or anyone who is required to leave home for work or an essential activity, or the management of COVID-19 outbreaks. The tests will then be extended to the wider community. We urge you to book your test appointment once you receive your invitation.

Find out more information about Lateral Flow Testing plans for West Berkshire.

We are keen to support residents and businesses in need throughout the pandemic. Please visit the following pages for further information and to get in touch:

COVID-19 Support for Residents 

Every mind matters - support for mental health

COVID-19 Support for Businesses

See also today's Business News Bulletin for an update on Covid-19 grants available to businesses. To receive this Bulletin direct to your inbox in future, please update your subscriber preferences.

Given the national publicity about plainly sub-standard food parcels being sent to eligible school children throughout the country, we wanted to reassure you that we are determined that children who are entitled to free school meals are provided food of the right quality while they are learning at home.

During the national lockdown, our schools will continue to support children eligible for benefits-related free school meals who are at home during term time, and we believe it is vitally important that all children in all schools are given good wholesome food that is enough for their needs.

For more information, see our statement, which includes commentary from Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, Cllr Dominic Boeck.

Like many other local authorities, we are facing a difficult January with significantly increased volumes of waste after the Christmas holidays and a number of collection crews self-isolating. This has impacted parts of our waste collection services so we had to make the difficult decision to temporarily suspend garden and food waste collections from Monday 18 January until Friday 29 January 2021.

We are asking residents whose garden waste is due for collection during this time to not put their green bin out until the service can be resumed again. 

Read more about the postponement of the garden and food waste collections. 

When the service is back up and running, up to 3 untied bags of excess garden waste will be allowed in addition to the green bin as a one-off on the first collection when the service resumes. Therefore subscribers will not lose out on their collections.

Please help our crews by ensuring containers are easily accessible and sorting your recycling into the correct containers. Please also fold down any large cardboard so that it’s as small as possible to fit into your green box or put next to it.

While we will not be issuing refunds due to the waste collection postponement, the collection of excess waste when the service resumes will mean that subscribed residents will still get a suitable level of service. See our FAQ document for further details.

Our household waste recycling centres are still open for essential visits for which you need to book an appointment.  

Although our Libraries are closed for now due to Covid restrictions, you can still reserve books to collect at your local library or mobile library, sign up to read e-books and e-magazines for free, and take part in online library activities. See library details and opening hours, but please be aware that libraries may be subject to last minute closures due to circumstances beyond our control. 

There are bookdrops/letterboxes outside each library to return books.  Don't worry if you can't get to a library to return your books, as we have extended our fines amnesty until the end of March 2021.

The third Monday in January is typically known as Blue Monday as it’s thought to be the most sad day of the year due to the cold, dreary weather and post-Christmas blues - and in this year’s case, being in our third national lockdown.

Now more than ever, it’s important that we are talking about mental health and looking after our wellbeing. Therefore, we want to make this year’s Blue Monday on 18 January an opportunity to beat the blues of Blue Monday and beyond.

Tune in with us on Monday afternoon at 2pm on our Facebook or Instagram stories, where a member of our Public Health team will be sharing advice and tips on how we can maintain good mental health during these challenging times. We also encourage you to post your thoughts and suggestions during our Beat Blue Monday event.

Meanwhile, NHS Berkshire West has relaunched the mental health booklet called the Little Blue Book of Sunshine. The book offers lots of practical and useful advice to help children and young people deal with issues such as anxiety, stress, body image, relationships and anger. It also includes information about where to get help when they need it. 

We’re very lucky to have so much beautiful countryside in West Berkshire, particularly as we’re currently being asked to take our daily exercise at home, or as close to home as possible. The government’s Stay at Home rules say that you can exercise with your household (or support bubble) or one other person. For your daily exercise, you should not travel outside your local area, which means stay in the village or town where you live.

Sadly, over the last few weekends we’ve seen inconsiderate and dangerous parking increase to a level where we must now put yellow lines at Streatley Hill and Sulham Hill.  We're also reminding everyone to please keep travelling distances to a minimum, and within your local area only, per the government rules.

Where possible, please walk rather than drive to enjoy the fresh air. However, if you do drive to a spot within your local area, it is essential that safety is maintained for everyone using the area and the highway, so please park considerately and safely.

• Beware of the multitude of COVID scams and don't let fraudsters abuse COVID support or try to steal your money.  Please report Covid-related fraudulent activity to Crimestoppers COVID Fraud Hotline (0800 587 5030) set up by HM Government in partnership with Crimestoppers. Remember the government or the NHS will never ask you for banking details.

•  You are invited to join an online focus group with Berkshire West Wellbeing on 20 January at 6.30pm or 27 January at 10am to share your thoughts on health and wellbeing services that are being planned. To register for either Zoom session, please email berkshirewestwellbeing@gmail.com or click here to complete the survey.