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New emergency support line

 

New emergency support line launched for vulnerable people needing urgent help

Today (Monday 30 March) Cumbria County Council and partners have launched a new emergency support service for people at high risk of becoming seriously ill, as a result of COVID-19, and who do not have support available from friends, family or neighbours.

Those at high risk include people over 70 years old, pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions who should be protecting themselves by staying at home. The majority of these people will already be receiving support from family, friends or local voluntary groups with tasks like shopping or collection of medicines if they require it. But we know that a small number of people will not have this support. If they have no alternative, these people will now be able to call the Freephone number to request help with getting food, medicines, essential supplies and home deliveries.

Cumbria County Council has been working closely with District Councils, Cumbria CVS, Cumbria Community Foundation, community and voluntary sector, private sector and military to establish these new arrangements. To support the new helpline every area is coordinating a supply of essential food, medicines and supplies which can only be accessed via the emergency helpline or email. The requests received asking for help will then be matched with local support and supplies being offered by community groups, volunteers, councils and businesses.

The Emergency telephone support line is 0800 783 1966.

Or you can email your request for help to COVID19support@cumbria.gov.uk.

Further details about this support service can be found online at cumbria.gov.uk.

The telephone ‘call’ centre will operate Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5pm and 10am to 2pm at weekends. The service will also accepts referrals from members of the public who may be concerned about people in their community.

Cumbria is already seeing widespread community and voluntary sector support for the response to COVID-19 and informal support, including neighbourhood WhatsApp groups and community Facebook groups, alongside a commitment from existing community emergency planning groups, local churches and faith groups and formal voluntary sector organisations who are working with the county council and partners including District Councils and NHS.

Cllr Deborah Earl, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Communities, said:

“People who are self-isolating or shielding must not go out to get food shopping, many of these people have good support networks who they can rely on for the delivery of food, medicines or essential services and supplies. But for those who don’t we are launching the new emergency support helpline.

“We want to reassure the public that we are ready to provide support to our most vulnerable residents who may not have friends or family available to help them.”

Carolyn Otley, Cumbria CVS, Chair of Community Resilience Group:

“It is important to speak to others and ask them to help you to make arrangements for delivery of food, medicines and essential services and supplies, and look after your physical and mental health and wellbeing.

“It’s been reassuring to see there is already widespread community and voluntary sector support for the response to COVID-19 across Cumbria. We all must continue to work together to help those who are isolated or at high risk.“

The helpline will also accept referrals from members of the public who may be concerned about people in their community.

For up to date information on COVID-19 in your area, please go to cumbria.gov.uk/coronavirus/communities.asp.

Coronavirus guidance

 

Anyone experiencing a new, continuous cough or a fever should stay at home for seven days, regardless of whether they have travelled to affected areas. This means people should stay at home and avoid all but essential contact with others for 7 days from the point of displaying mild symptoms, to slow the spread of infection. Please do not go to your GP, pharmacies, walk in centres or A&E.

People do not need to call NHS 111 to go into self-isolation. If symptoms worsen during home isolation or are no better after 7 days contact NHS 111 online at 111.nhs.uk. If people have no internet access, they should call NHS 111.

Prevention is always better than cure, so, as with the flu virus, the most effective way for people to protect themselves from COVID-19 is to adopt good respiratory and hand hygiene to prevent the risk of infection and a ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach to coughs and sneezes.

Further Information and Guidance

Silloth Community Governance Review

 

A Community Governance Review is being carried out by Allerdale Borough Council to look at redrawing the boundary between Silloth Town Council and Holme Low Parish Council. This piece of work is being undertaken to address the issue that Lido Village is split by the boundary.

A Working Group of councillors has been set up to undertake the review and to make a final recommendation to Allerdale Borough Council on whether to amend the boundary, and if so, where that new boundary should be. It is expected that any amendments will be in place for 1 April 2020.

The Working Group initlally consulted on two options, during that consultation local residents proposed a third option which would be to take all of the properties in the Lido Village into the Holme Low Parish area. The Working Group felt it was important that local residents be given another opportunity to comment on proposals including this third option.

There are now three options for amending the boundary, shown on the maps below. The current boundary is shown in blue and the proposed new boundaries are in maroon.

Option 1 is to redraw the boundary so that all properties in Lido Village are within Silloth Town Council area.

Option 2 would take all of the Lido Village plus the properties on Barracks Bridge into the Silloth Town Council area.

Option three would take all of the properties in the Lido Village into the Holme Low Parish area.

Please let us know which of the three options you prefer by answering the short survey below. There is also space to add any additional comments you would like to Working Group to take into account.

https://www.allerdale.gov.uk/en/consultation/silloth-community-governance-review/

Residents in all of the properties affected by the two proposals will be written to individually for their views. Silloth Town Council and Holme Low Parish Council will also be consulted. Please note: The consultation ends at noon on March 2, 2020.

Silloth Community Governance Review

 
Residents of the Lido Village and Barracks Bridge will have recently received a letter from Allerdale Borough Council regarding a Community Governance Review which is being carried out, to look at redrawing the boundary between Silloth Town Council and Holme Low Parish Council. This is to address the issue that the Lido Village is split by the boundary.
 
There are a number of points which need to be taken into consideration.

 

Option 1 is to redraw the boundary so that all properties in the Lido Village are within Silloth Town Council area.

At the moment, properties on the Lido Village are paying Council tax for Silloth and yet some are unable to vote when there is an election for Silloth Town Council, as they are actually within Holme Low Parish. Option 1 would correct this anomaly and enable all Lido Village residents to vote in a Silloth Town Council election.

Option 2 would take all of the Lido Village plus the properties on Barracks Bridge into the Silloth Town Council area.

With Option 2, the 15 properties on Barracks Bridge would be taken out of Holme Low and those properties would then in all probability, have to pay increased council tax bills, as they would then have to contribute towards the Precept of Silloth Town Council.  The only benefit from moving the boundary would be that residents of Barracks Bridge would then be allowed to vote in a Silloth Town Council election

For example, on a Band D property, the Silloth portion of the Council tax bill will be in the region of £196.15 per year for 2020/21, whereas for Holme Low, on a Band D property the Holme Low portion of the council tax bill will be in the region of £56 per year.

Holme Low is made up of a number of small hamlets;  Barracks Bridge, Blackdyke, Blitterlees, Calvo, Causewayhead, Greenrow, Seaville and Wolsty with a much smaller number of households compared to Silloth. To remove 15 houses at Barracks Bridge from Holme Low would have a detrimental effect in that there would be fewer houses to cover the Holme Low precept, resulting in the council tax bill for the remaining properties increasing as they would have to contribute a larger proportion.

What is a precept?  The precept is the parish or town council’s share of the council tax. The precept demand goes to the billing authority, the Borough Council, which collects the tax for the Parish/Town Council. The ‘Precept’ is converted into an amount per Council Tax Band that is added onto the Council Tax bill.

Why is there no Option 3?

Another suggestion would be to redraw the boundary so that all the properties in the Lido Village are within the Parish of Holme Low.

Council tax bills for the residents of the Lido Village would be reduced, as they would be paying council tax to Holme Low rather than Silloth.  However, none of the residents of the Lido Village would be able to vote in a Silloth Town Council election.  This would benefit Holme Low in that there would be more households to contribute to the Precept of Holme Low which would reduce the cost of the Council tax bill per household.  It would have the opposite effect on the Silloth council tax bills but less noticeably as there are a lot more households in Silloth.

Responses to the consultation can be submitted online on the Allerdale Borough Council website https://www.allerdale.gov.uk/en/consultation/silloth-community-governance-review/

If you have already responded to the consultation but after having considered the above, now have a different opinion, contact the Electoral Services Department at Allerdale Borough Council, Allerdale House, Workington, CA14 3YJ.  Email: electoralservices@allerdale.gov.uk  Tel: 0303 123 1731.   The consultation ends on 10 February 2020.

Community Governance Review

 

A Community Governance Review is being carried out by Allerdale Borough Council to look at redrawing the boundary between Silloth Town Council and Holme Low Parish Council. This piece of work is being undertaken to address the issue that Lido Village is split by the boundary.

A Working Group of councillors has been set up to undertake the review and to make a final recommendation to Allerdale Borough Council on whether to amend the boundary, and if so, where that new boundary should be. It is expected that any amendments will be in place for 1 April 2020.

The Working Group has now started formal consultation on its proposal. There are two options for amending the boundary, shown on the maps below. The current boundary is shown in blue and the proposed new boundaries are in maroon. Option 1 is to redraw the boundary so that all properties in Lido Village are within Silloth Town Council area. Option 2 would take all of the Lido Village plus the properties on Barracks Bridge into the Silloth Town Council area.

Please let us know which of the two options (images below) you prefer by answering the short survey below. There is also space to add any additional comments you would like to Working Group to take into account.

Residents in all of the properties affected by the two proposals will be written to individually for their views. Silloth Town Council and Holme Low Parish Council will also be consulted. Please note: The consultation ends on February 10, 2020.

For more information and to take part in the consultation, click on the link below.

Changes to waste collection services

 

Allerdale Borough Council is advising residents of changes to waste services over the next few weeks which are aimed at alleviating the issues which are affecting collections. Both the council, and FCC Environment, apologises for any inconvenience caused.

The council introduced a new waste collection service on 1 April 2019 with services provided by FCC Environment. This introduced completely new bin collection rounds and new lorries with in-cab technology.

However, since the changes were introduced the bin crews have not been able to make it to some properties on the scheduled day. Therefore, the council is introducing temporary changes, to help crews complete the rounds whilst more permanent solutions are devised by the council and FCC.

The changes come into place from Monday 8 July 2019 and will mean:

  • All garden waste collections are suspended for up to the next two months
  • All glass, cans and plastic recycling collections are also suspended for up to the next two months

Domestic waste and paper and card and trade waste collections remain unaffected by the changes.

Unfortunately, crews are unable to collect the recycling, paper and card, and garden waste from properties they were not able to get to this past week (beginning 1 July 2019). However, they shall take excess domestic waste from these properties next week.

During this period, residents are advised to use the recycling centres and the household waste recycling sites to dispose of their recycling and garden waste. Details, and locations, can be found on the council’s website at: https://www.allerdale.gov.uk/en/waste-recycling/recycling-centres/.

Residents are also encouraged to remember the phrase: Reduce, reuse, recycle. Where possible reduce the amount of waste you are creating and reuse items such as plastic boxes to help reduce the amount of waste you put out and to wash and squash down recycling where possible.

Notes

  1. For more information contact the communications team on 01900 702 525/26
  2. More information:
  • Customers can check the online calendar at allerdale.gov.uk/bincollectionswhere they can also report a missed bin.
  • The best way to contact the council is through their online service on https://www.allerdale.gov.uk/en/report/or via the myAllerdale app (which can be downloaded from Google Play store for Android users and the Apple App Store for iPhone users). You can also use the webchat facility when available.
  • Customers can also contact the customer service team by calling 0303 123 1702.
  • Garden waste can be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Sites in Maryport, Workington and Wigton. More information at: https://www.cumbria.gov.uk/planning-environment/waste-management/servicesincumbria/hwrcs/hwrc.asp
  • Residents can also make use of the offer from Cumbria County Council to buy compost bins at a reduced price. More details can be found at: https://getcomposting.com/
  • Remember the phrase: Reduce, reuse, recycle. Where possible reduce the amount of waste you are creating and if possible reuse items such as plastic boxes to help reduce the amount of waste you put out.