We all know we're living in unprecedented times. Our health, our social life, our economic well-being are all under attack and it's difficult to know exactly what to do and particularly what's going to happen.
As you've seen from the Government, we must all play our part in protecting ourselves our loved ones and those more vulnerable in our communities.
The Council obviously has a very important role to play as a local authority, our role is to help save lives, support our health partners and keep as many people out of hospital as we can by keeping them safe and well at home.
We have now identified the services we provide that are vital to keeping vulnerable people safe and well, such as meals at home, personal alarms and community transport, and we've taken action to ensure that not only they keep running but can be expanded as necessary. Where non-essential services have been closed down, such as the theatres, road and multi-story car park, staff from those services have been redeployed to where they can add their strength to keep vital services up and running.
We recently started calling over three and a half thousand vulnerable residents a couple of times a week to check on their welfare and help keep them less isolated. We're supporting charities who have lost their ability to fundraise but still have ongoing costs, we have redirected money towards supporting the elderly, the vulnerable and community volunteers who are stepping up to help.
We've started delivering food to those people who need a small parcel just to tag them over until they can get another delivery in. We're supporting High Cross ecumenical Church in Camberley and Surrey Heath Prepared - they've set up a hub to take calls from people requesting assistance from across the borough, if you need assistance and your family friends or neighbours cannot help, then call them on 01276 66798.
I want to say thank you to all the residents who volunteered to help. There are now well over 3,000 of you across the borough and every one of you is helping to alleviate stress which can save lives.
If you want to volunteer to help people in your community, you can register online at Surrey Heath Prepared. For details on how you can donate fruit, toiletries, cleaning supplies etc, or assist financially please visit Surrey Heath Prepared.
Every ward in the Borough has a co-ordinator who can arrange for volunteers to provide services to those who need help, everything from picking up medicines, to walking dogs.
We will continue to support the volunteers and those in need for as long as this crisis lasts.
Another vital part of our community of course is our businesses, who employ tens of thousands of our residents. During this time businesses are under pressure like they've never seen before and that means financial pressure for everyone who works for them.
The Government has put together a number of support packages for businesses, including business rate relief grants, self-employed Income Support Scheme and guidance on businesses which need to stay open or closed. Our revenues and benefits department is therefore ensuring these packages reach the businesses that are entitled to them as quickly as possible.
We're expecting the business grants to be paid out in early April.
We've created a coronavirus business information page on our website where you can access key information on those schemes. If you have any queries regarding these or any of these measures, please have a look at our website or email [email protected] with details of your query.
As I said, everyone needs to do that part we can do that by keeping our distance from one another even when we're outside, staying home if possible and keeping in contact with each other electronically.
Now if you or someone you know starts to show symptoms, then go online at 111.nhs.uk for advice and be prepared to take whatever action you need to to stay safe.
Finally, I would like to thank all the staff at Surrey Heath Borough Council, many of them are doing completely different jobs from normal, those that are keeping on top of all of the other work that we do and those who are going to be working over the weekends to come. This is an unprecedented ask for them and I thank them for the passion and dedication that they're showing and serving our community
I hope you found this useful, and I'll do further updates in the future.
In the meantime, I wish everyone the best of health and stay safe.
- Cllr Alan McClafferty, Leader of Surrey Heath Borough Council
