Swale Borough Council - Maintaining Essential Council Services

We know that there has been much discussion and debate about what is deemed an essential worker or service, and the same has been happening with our operations. 

We have been following government guidance and where possible staff have been working from home. However, certain jobs and services simply can’t be done from home and in these cases, we have been adhering to social distancing guidelines as much as we can.

We have been working with our contractors and have received assurances that they are assessing the risks and providing staff with the right level of protection, so in many cases, we feel it is right to continue with our key services.

Some examples of contractors continuing to work include:

Waste collections - Our contractors are following government guidelines and the recently issued Waste Industry Safety and Health principles.

We are prioritising waste collection services to ensure every household continues to get a basic collection service.

Public toilets - While footfall is reduced we feel it is vital to continue to offer this service for those that need it, especially key workers that need to be out and about.

Our cleansing contractor Monitor is taking the precautions needed and doing a great job with increased cleansing regimes.

Grounds maintenance - Grass cutting or tree work may not seem essential to some, but it is important that we keep on top of this health and safety work, especially in areas where people will be doing their daily exercise or in our cemeteries which remain in operation.

Along with our own staff, our grounds maintenance team are also keeping an eye on the closed playgrounds and fitness equipment.

Parking enforcement - Despite the changes to parking restrictions which has seen reduced enforcement, it is important that we maintain safety and clear traffic flow for emergency vehicles and waste collection vehicles.

We have reduced staff patrolling key areas to focus on double yellow lines, school keep clear zones and loading bays to allow for critical food deliveries.

We know everybody is working hard to get through this situation and we are especially proud of our staff and contractors that continue to deliver key functions for everybody in the borough.

Swale Borough Council

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Latest POLICE.UK Crime Data for the Area - February 2020

Hartlip, Newington and Upchurch

Here is a brief summary of the crime information for the past 2 months:

	January 2020	February 2020
All crime	42	30
Anti-social behaviour	7	4
Bicycle theft	0	0
Burglary	2	1
Criminal damage and arson	11	3
Drugs	0	0
Other crime	1	0
Other theft	3	2
Possession of weapons	0	0
Public order	1	0
Robbery	0	1
Shoplifting	2	5
Theft from the person	0	0
Vehicle crime	4	4
Violence and sexual offences	11	10

Please visit: www.police.uk for more information including outcomes for these crimes and contact information for your local policing team.

Lower Halstow and Iwade

Here is a brief summary of the crime information for the past 2 months: January 2020 February 2020 All crime 25 21 Anti-social behaviour 10 3 Bicycle theft 0 0 Burglary 4 1 Criminal damage and arson 1 2 Drugs 0 0 Other crime 0 0 Other theft 0 0 Possession of weapons 0 0 Public order 1 3 Robbery 0 0 Shoplifting 0 0 Theft from the person 0 0 Vehicle crime 1 7 Violence and sexual offences 8 5 Please visit: www.police.uk for more information including outcomes for these crimes and contact information for your local policing team. Upchurch Matters

UpARA - April 2020 Newsletter & Latest Programme of Events

John Wishart - Chairman

Tel: 07971 511956

Email: john@togthedog.co.uk

Website: www.upara.club

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Medway Council Takes Immediate Action to Provide Financial Support to its Businesses and Residents

The Leader of Medway Council has used Urgency Powers to ensure immediate work is carried out to further support residents and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Government has set out its latest financial packages to support residents and businesses most in need of help with council tax and business rates. Since the announcements, Medway Council has been working hard to identify those eligible of the financial support and implement the financial changes.

As part of the Urgency Powers, the Chief Finance Officer, in consultation with the Leader and the Portfolio Holder for Business Management, has been granted delegated authority to implement the following measures. Decisions, such as this, would usually be taken to a Cabinet meeting for portfolio holders to discuss and decide on. However, to ensure that Medway is responding quickly to support those most in need of financial support during the pandemic, this change has been approved.

Cllr Alan Jarrett, Leader of Medway Council, said:

“I am pleased the government has put measures in place to enable us to provide additional financial support to the Medway residents and businesses who need extra help during the pandemic. We recognise the importance of quickly getting these national measures in place locally and I have used Urgency Powers to allow this work to be immediately carried out. We will continue to do all we can to support Medway’s economy during this difficult time.”

Council tax reduction scheme

Medway Council has been awarded £2,056,371 of the Government’s £500million hardship fund, which will provide council tax relief to vulnerable people and households to help those affected most by coronavirus. In Medway, this will provide a reduction on council tax bills to lower income households, taking account of income and savings.

Residents who are currently part of the council tax reduction scheme will automatically receive a reduction in their annual council tax bill of up to £150.

Business rate relief

Retail discount: Retail ratepayers who have recently received a new annual bill showing a 50 per cent discount will now receive a revised bill showing a 100 per cent discount.

The 100 per cent discount has been extended to include properties completely or mainly used for leisure, hotels and assembly, such as public halls. Additionally, the previous cap restricting discount to those properties with a rateable value less than or equal to £51,000 has been removed.

The service is working hard to identify eligible properties and will issue notices to them.

Public houses

Where pubs do not qualify for the 100 per cent extended retail relief, their bills will be discounted by up to £5,000.

Medway had already issued business rate bills based on the original level of relief, and will send amended bills to those affected once more details are issued from the Government.

Small business grants

The Government has allocated around £39.7million to Medway Council (due on 1st April) to fund grants to support small businesses through this period. Ratepayers are being invited to provide information to check their eligibility for business support grants and ensure that bank details are correct, so that the funds can be distributed quickly.

Letters are being sent out to businesses and an online form has been created on medway.gov.uk for businesses to complete.

Emergency grant funding

Medway Council has also received £6.628m COVID-19 emergency funding from the Government to help support the local authority respond to the pandemic and address the pressures local government is facing.

Urgency powers will also be used to add this funding to the council’s revenue budget. Government has suggested spending the funding in the following areas:

• Meeting the increased demand for adult social care and enabling councils to provide additional support to social care providers.

• Meeting the cost of extra demand and higher business-as-usual costs of providing children’s social care.

• Providing additional support for the homeless and rough sleepers.

• Supporting those at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, who may be asked to self-isolate in their homes for the duration of the pandemic. 

• Meeting pressures across other services, as a result of reduced income, rising costs or increased demand.

Medway Council

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Swale Borough Council - Garden Waste Collections Suspended

A council spokesperson said:

“We are extremely grateful for the kind words we’ve had about our waste collection crews. They really appreciate them, and the thank you cards and messages left on bins, as they work hard to maintain the service.

Unfortunately, due to reduced staff levels, we have taken the decision to suspend garden waste collections to prioritise collecting general waste, food waste and recycling.

This means that if your garden waste brown bin is out for collection, please take it in off the street until we are able to restart the collections - please check our website and social media for updates.

If you don’t already, and you have the space, you could start home composting your garden waste.

We will continue to collect your blue, green and food waste as planned, however if your bins are not collected on your usual allocated day, please leave them out and we will get to them as soon as we can.”

Swale Borough Council

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UPDATE from SGN - Gas Network Upgrade in A2/High Street, Newington - Tuesday 31st March

I’m writing to you further to my previous Email about our ongoing work to upgrade our gas network in A2/ High Street, Newington.

We know that during the coronavirus outbreak, our communities will rely on us now more than ever to keep them safe and warm. The safety of our communities and our employees will remain our number one priority in the weeks and months ahead.

We need to continue with our safety-critical project to upgrade the gas network in A2/ High Street. This needs to continue now, rather than wait until the pandemic passes, to ensure your local community continues to receive a safe and reliable gas supply.

We’re working closely with UK Government and public health bodies to make sure we work safely and in line with expert advice during the coronavirus outbreak. We have extra safety precautions in place to protect our colleagues and our customers from catching or spreading the virus as we carry out our safety-critical project.

There’s more information about our coronavirus preparations on our website: sgn.co.uk/coronavirus

Thank you for your understanding and support during these challenging times.

Kind regards

Paige Roberts

Stakeholder and Community Manager

SGN Gas

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