A joint update from Cornwall Council and Cornwall Association of Local Councils (CALC)

The recent announcement by the Prime Minister marked an unprecedented temporary change to the way we live our lives in Cornwall and the rest of the UK. It is a serious step, with ramifications for us all.

Cornwall Council and CALC will be issuing joint updates to town and parish councils in Cornwall to help you access relevant information and guidance.

Last week Cornwall Council put plans in place for new working arrangements which put residents, businesses and communities firmly at the heart of what the Council is doing. There are ten new multi-service groups - known as ‘cells’ – on areas from business to housing. The Communities Cell plays the critical role of gathering intelligence on communities issues to deliver an appropriate response, as well as mapping and signposting to the incredible place-based community activity underway. It includes representation of Cornwall Association of Local Councils by Sarah Mason, alongside a member of Cornwall Council’s Localism team.

Government guidance on staying at home and away from others

The Prime Minister has announced strict new curbs on life in the UK to tackle the spread of coronavirus. Everyone should:

• Stay at home.
• Only go outside for food, health reasons or essential work.
• Stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people.
• Wash your hands as soon as you get home.

Cornwall Council has taken the immediate action of closing all its offices to the public with immediate effect.

Essential contact points

Cornwall Council is working very closely with partners across Cornwall to join up efforts with other agencies as it responds to these unprecedented circumstances. The Council will be sending you regular joint updates with CALC, but in a rapidly changing situation, here are some essential contact details worth knowing and sharing:

• Cornwall Council’s Information about Coronavirus (COVID-19) web page includes information about coronavirus and how it’s affecting services in Cornwall. The page is updated regularly as more information becomes available.
• For anything relating to services normally provided by the Council, or queries about COVID-19 itself, please email Cornwall Council at covid19@cornwall.gov.uk There is a team centrally manning this email and requests for information and help will be forwarded to the relevant specialist teams.
• Your local Community Link Officer will also be a point of contact for you and will continue to have regular contact with you, but the preference is that requests for help from Cornwall Council are sent via the details listed above.
• To request community support or to offer volunteer help and support in the community, please contact Volunteer Cornwall, who are working with Cornwall Council and coordinating the matching of volunteers to local needs. Email requestforhelp@volunteercornwall.org.uk or telephone 01872 265300.

Crisis funding

Cornwall Council are contributing up to £100,000 to Cornwall Coronavirus Emergency Appeal to ensure that grassroots organisations and small charities are able to meet increased frontline demand during the COVID-19 crisis. This will continue to be managed by Cornwall Community Foundation, using its extensive experience in managing small grants.

Additionally, there are a large number of small, unconstituted groups springing up in Cornwall’s communities. The additional support these groups are providing to vulnerable people is vital. Under Charity Commission rules, these new groups cannot be supported by CCF through the Cornwall Coronavirus Emergency Appeal unless they are formally constituted.

Therefore we are also relaxing the normal procedures for distributing Cornwall Councillors Community Chest funding, which amounts to almost £250,000. This will allow Cornwall Councillors to rapidly provide support to local groups and provide them with other options to support communities during and after the crisis.

To avoid duplication of funding:

• requests to Cornwall Councillors for Community Chest funding from constituted charities will be triaged by the Council’s Localism Team to Cornwall Community Foundation, to be funded by the Appeal.
• requests to Cornwall Community Foundation for emergency funding from small unconstituted groups will be triaged to the Council’s Localism Team, who will refer to the Local Member(s) as Community Chest funding requests.

Waste and recycling

At present, Cornwall Council’s waste and recycling collections are planned to continue as normal. Personal waste such as used tissues and disposable cleaning cloths should be stored securely within disposable rubbish bags. These bags should be placed into another bag, tied securely, and kept separate from other waste. This should be put aside for at least 72 hours before being put out in your usual external household waste bin. Other household waste can be disposed of as normal. For additional advice, please visit www.gov.uk.

All 14 of Cornwall Council’s Household Waste and Recycling Centres are now closed until further notice.

Cornwall Council cannot take any new orders for bulky waste collections at this time. Collections that are already booked will be collected in the future once the situation changes.

Planning applications

Coronavirus will have an impact on local councils’ ability to hold face to face meetings. However, Cornwall Council are responsible for determining planning applications within the statutory timescales and government have indicated that they wish this to continue. Cornwall Council will continue to work with local councils in circumstances where they might require a few more days to consider a particular application (on a case by case basis), but it would be unreasonable to seek to delay the determination of planning applications generally for an unspecified period or indeed for a number of months, in the event that the local council is unable to meet and provide comments. Therefore local councils have already been advised of the procedures which can be put into place to consider their responses on planning applications electronically.

The longstanding Local Council Protocol was developed to provide a clear process for local councils to be involved in the decision making on planning applications, and this will help guide the process in these difficult circumstances. To ensure business continuity during this difficult period Cornwall Council will proceed to determine planning applications as necessary in cases where no response has been received from the local council within the specified consultation period.

Support for business

The government has released guidance and support measures for businesses and employers specifically related to COVID-19. The latest information can be found on the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Growth and Skills Hub website www.ciosgrowthhub.com.

School transport update

With schools closed from Monday 23 March, and uncertainty around which and how many children will still be attending school, the current school transport arrangements will continue unchanged this week.

Once a clear position on school opening has been established, Cornwall Council will review this but ensure that transport is still available to get all children to school who normally use school transport.

Leisure centres

All leisure centres are now closed temporarily due to government instructions. Memberships for leisure centres managed by GLL are frozen and no payments will be taken for the duration of the closures.

Please check www.gll.org or @GLL_UK on Twitter for updates and information.

Private gyms and leisure facilities will be making their own arrangements about membership payments.

Community Network Panel meetings

All Cornwall Council Community Network Panel meetings are postponed until further notice. Projects arising from the panels, such as the CNP Highways Scheme, will still progress where possible and where resource and staff availability permit.

Allotments

CALC has received a number of requests from town and parish councils for guidance on the opening of allotments, which do not appear to be specifically covered in the list of public places now closed due to the coronavirus.

The National Allotment Society has useful guidance which confirms that currently allotments remain open. They advise that currently attending the allotment could be consider ‘daily exercise’. Currently the final decision as to whether the facility will be your decision if you own and run the allotments. The NAS website confirms the measures that you may wish to put in place if you decide to leave the allotments open.

CALC has raised the question with NALC for a government response.

Cornwall Council's natural environment facilities and projects

Cornwall Council is not planning to physically close any playgrounds, play areas, skate parks, sports pitches and courts, formal or other parks, open spaces, beaches or public rights of way.

The Council will install temporary notices at playgrounds and similar facilities to remind people of government restrictions. In formal parks in busy locations the Council may install temporary notices to remind people of government guidelines on social distancing.

Safety inspections will continue, but there will inevitably be delays in some major projects such as Making Space for Nature, Urban Trees, Forest for Cornwall and Ash Die Back. These will be reviewed in due course.

Footpaths, bridleways and byways remain open for the public to use to get to work, medical appointments or as part of their daily exercise routine. Cornwall Council has had a small number of requests to close public rights of way which are located near to people who are self-isolating. The Council has no legal powers to do this, and there are no plans to do so.

Grass cutting

Cornwall Council will be delaying the start of grass cutting in urban areas as staff are being diverted onto other essential activities. This will be reviewed in due course.

Libraries

All of the Libraries and Information Service sites across Cornwall including our facility in Redruth, are now closed. These services play a vital role in supporting the most vulnerable in our communities, and over the next few weeks Cornwall Council Library Officers in conjunction with Redruth Town Council will be working together to look at what a phased return for services could look like once the lockdown period is lifted. Cornwall Council is also looking at working closely with community groups, such as Volunteer Cornwall, to see if a book delivery offer could be part of the new delivery services to those in most need. Any developments will be shared through these updates.

Cornwall Housing

At the present time Cornwall Council has suspended the operation of the Homechoice system. If anyone has already bid for a home over the previous advert cycles, these bids will remain active, and no additional homes will be advertised at this time. Social housing landlords will not be progressing any allocations at this time due to the coronavirus outbreak, as these allocation processes are considered non-essential.

In accordance with the latest Public Health England guidelines, to safeguard employees the Homechoice team will be operating under reduced capacity during this period and dealing with emergency queries only.

If you know someone who is homeless or threatened with homelessness, please ask them to call our Prevention and Engagement Teams on 0300 1234 161.

Cormac

Cormac have a reduced number of frontline teams working on emergency and essential services in response to coronavirus so they can continue to keep roads open and safe and ensure key workers can travel to and from work. Cormac will continue to monitor employee availability and prioritise work where appropriate.

Residents can continue to report any highways issues such as potholes through www.cornwall.gov.uk/reportroad. To report an emergency highways issue call 0300 1234 222.