Covid-19: Parish Council Plan

Leaflet to Ridgewell Residents click here

I wanted to provide detail on what the Parish Council is doing in response to Covid-19.

First, there has been no change to advice provided on Thursday by Government.  The advice is for those showing symptoms, high temperature and new persistent coughs to self isolate. For those in vulnerable categories, over 70s and those who have pre-existing health conditions such as heart and respiratory issues to not take unnecessary risks and avoid unnecessary travel. We expect directed self-isolation and quarantine to be introduced but not yet.

On to what Ridgewell PC is implementing. We want to ensure we have a register of all those who are vulnerable. Those over 70 and those with pre-existing illnesses likely to be adversely impacted. They will need to provide their contact details so that we have permission to contact them.

We also want a group of volunteers who are prepared to help those who are isolated to get medical and food essentials and to provide a daily telephone assurance call. This has to be regulated since we do not want people to inadvertently put the vulnerable at risk through good intentions. Please remember that the majority of healthy individuals will not experience any extreme symptoms but are still liable to transmit the virus.

Finally we will provide information on how to order food provisions and medicine by telephone and online and an emergency number for anyone who needs to speak to someone locally for support. We believe the Church will provide this facility.

Our intent is to deliver a flyer with all of these details to every house in Ridgewell early next week. We will publish details on the PC website and village hall Facebook page as well as on the village notice board. We will update as we get nformation and we have councillors speaking to pharmacies and local shops tomorrow so that we have the detail ready to go.

If you are a volunteer, or you wish to register as a vulnerable person, please let me have a contact number, address and email address via nigel.benwellpc@gmail.com.

Finally I appreciate there are lots of private social media pages run by people within the village. Can I ask you to share this message widely.

Cllr Nigel Benwell

Chairman, Ridgewell Parish Council