Monthly Archives: March 2020

VE Day Pop-Up Market – Cancelled but many stallholders online and deliver locally

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic we are sorry that the planned VE Day market has been cancelled. However, many stallholders also trade online and will deliver locally. Please support them!

 

 

New Avon Dassett Coronavirus Advice Website Launched

Avon Dassett Community Website has put together a new site bringing together links and advice during the Coronavirus pandemic. The website is packed with information with links to government advice, to the NHS, district and county council support, the Avon Dassett Covid-19 Support group and top tips for keeping well whilst staying at home.

The site will be continually updated, so save the link now!

Covid-19 – Waste and Recycling

Please read the following information about changes to waste and recycling services run by Warwickshire County Council.

Recycling centre closures

Following the announcement by the Prime Minister on the evening of Monday 23 March that everyone should stay at home to save lives, we have closed all household waste recycling centres with immediate effect.

Recycling centres will not open from Tuesday 24 March onwards, for an indefinite period. Visiting recycling centres is not included in the reasons for leaving home.

All households should make full use of their kerbside waste collection service, which your local council is making every effort to keep operational for your recycling, green and food waste and general waste.

Warwickshire waste transfer stations

Warwickshire waste transfer stations will continue to operate for district and borough councils and for trade waste.

Commercial, charged for, waste can still be brought to:

  • Princes Drive, Leamington
  • Hunters Lane, Rugby

Site users must observe social distancing at the weighbridge and when tipping.

Waste must be separated for recycling and composting as normal – lower charges apply for recycling than for general waste.

Cards are accepted but cash is not.

Information about accessing services from Stratford District Council

  • Elizabeth House will not open to the public until further notice. Posters advertising how the public can contact the Council are on the main doors and we have arrangements in place for the most exceptional cases. For your information, yesterday we had 27 visitors to Elizabeth House, of which the vast majority were renewing parking permits, we only had one visitor with emergency needs. We will keep this situation under review and will open our doors again as soon as is safe to do so;
  • Homeworking : as you will aware, we have been gradually increasing our capacity as an organisation to work remotely over the last few weeks. We have now reached the stage however where we only want those officers in Elizabeth House who meet the following definition, those staff who cannot work from home and they are delivering one of the Council’s business critical services. The business critical services for the Council being:
      • Finance/Payroll;
      • Building Control emergency staff;
      • Communications;
      • Community Support including those redeployed to support Hubs;
      • Customer Services including contact centre;

o    Emergency Planning;

    • Environmental Protection;
    • Food Safety;
    • Benefits – Housing and Council Tax  (significant increase in demand already);
    • Homelessness/Rough Sleepers/housing need officers;
    • ICT;
    • Legal;
    • Licensing;
    • Premises and Safety;

For other members of staff they will be expected to work from home, in the event that they have no homeworking capacity they are still expected to stay away from Elizabeth House. However, it is absolutely essential if staff are in this position that they are contactable and that the SDC TAB is updated with their contact details. We have significant additional equipment expected to be delivered this week. Management Team are working with the Service Managers in  prioritising the roll out of this equipment to those that currently have no homeworking ability and are delivering a business critical service.

Useful Coronavirus Updates from Stratford District Council

*** GOVERNMENT ADVICE IS TO STAY AT HOME ***

This is Stratford District Council’s website for all advice on Coronavirus: https://www.stratford.gov.uk/health-care/coronovirus-information.cfm?frmAlias=/coronavirus/

Including advice on:

Online teaching activities in Avon Dassett

There are a number of trained teachers in Avon Dassett who will be happy to help entertain/educate children who are having to stay at home and are off school. We realise this service may not be needed immediately but please bear us in mind over the coming weeks and months.

We can offer

  • Individual/group one to one sessions online
  • Online video/audio/written resources
  • Quizzes and challenges
  • Virtual book clubs
  • Online story time

At the moment we have expertise in English, Maths, all Science subjects, History, and Music and for all ages from pre-school to 18.

Parents are also getting in touch offering to share resources (books, toys, games etc). Again if you are interested get in touch (details below).

In the meantime, this is an excellent article for parents facing ‘home-schooling’: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/mar/21/try-to-minimise-stress-how-to-home-school-your-child

If you are a teacher who would like to offer help, or a parent needing some support with your children, please email: drsarahrichardson@gmail.com

 

HMRC Coronavirus Support for Businesses

 

Struggling to pay taxes (whether it’s self assessment, corporation, or PAYE)

HMRC are adding a support helpline with an extra 2000 people to man the phones to assist with anybody worried about paying their taxes.  All useful numbers/web links are listed below.  Contact this helpline for advice.  They will put in place a payment plan and no interest charges will be due as long as you stick to the plan.

VAT

Anybody due to make VAT payments in April, May or June, payment can be delayed if required and will not be due until the end of the 20/21 tax year (So by 5th April 2021).  Anybody that receives a VAT refund will still receive this.  Again, VAT must still be filed on time, but the payment is not required.  Anybody who pays by direct debit usually is advised to cancel it if they intend to make use of the payment holiday.

Self Assessment Payment on Accounts – Due July 2020

Anybody that is due to make a payment on account in July, the payment has been deferred and is not due until January 2021.

Sick Pay for Employees

For businesses that run a payroll for less than 250 employees, the government will pay back statutory sick pay after the first day of sickness instead of the usual 3 up to 2 weeks.  It may take a few months to get this money back though and HMRC have stressed that it is important to keep records of Employee’s sickness due the virus.

For those businesses that have had to close, HMRC will pay 80% of employee wages up to £2500 p/m.

Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Grants

This is a temporary scheme giving businesses access to bank loans and overdrafts to help get through this crisis.  Information will be available over the next couple of weeks from banks.

The grants for businesses that pay rates are available for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses are being issues by local councils and they will be in touch directly in due course.  If you have a rateable value of under £15,000 you will receive a £10,000 grant, a rateable value of bwteen £15,001 and £51,000 will receive £25,000.  These businesses will also receive a business rates holiday and new bills will arrive from your local authority.

Universal Credit

For the self employed for whom the virus will have an impact with regards to income, they can apply for universal credit to help with personal finances.  The government have relaxed the ruling on this for now and have brought down the minimum income floor for self employed.

Contact Details

Covid 19 HMRC tax payment deferrals helpline 0800 0159 559

Universal Credit 0800 3285644 or https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit

Avon Dassett Coronavirus Support Group

**** GOVERNMENT ADVICE IS TO STAY AT HOME ****

Our support group is getting up and running. We are delighted with the number of responses from people who are offering to help where they can, and with the community spirit everyone is showing. An initial email has been sent to the volunteers, so if you have volunteered and have not heard from us, apologies. Please let us know and we will make sure you are added going forward.

To date, there have been few requests for help but this is certain to rise as time progresses. The main thing that people have said they might need help with is in collecting prescriptions and we are currently in touch with the surgery at Fenny Compton to sort out how we can best arrange this.  If needed, we will also contact other surgeries.

We have a few properties where people are self-isolating for various reasons. They are generally managing with the help of family and friends, but the offer of support is there for them.

As a start, we are setting up a volunteers Whatsapp group to circulate any requests for help so that one of the volunteers can pick it up.   This seems to be working well in a nearby village, so we will see how it goes and change things as we need to. There are a few volunteers who do not use Whatsapp, and we will find a way to take them up on their offers of assistance.

For any requests for help, or for any other questions or comments, please continue to contact the helpline number (07860 702 749) and the covid19@avondassettparishcouncil.com email address. Or complete the contact form on the Coronavirus page at www.avondassettparishcouncil.com/coronavirus/. Please share these contact details with your family if you feel this is appropriate.

We will try to provide regular updates on what we are doing. We know that there are some people who do not subscribe to the Parish Council email alerts or who do not use email. So, please feel free to share the contents of this email with anyone you know is in this category. Please also encourage people to sign up for these emails by visiting the Parish Council website.