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How Pendle Council has responded to the coronavirus pandemic
Published: Monday, 11th May 2020
Councillor Mohammed Iqbal in Nelson town centre
“The coronavirus pandemic has led to a lot of rapid changes but thanks to a big team effort we’ve been able to keep vital services going whilst supporting our most vulnerable residents.”
That’s the message from Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, Leader of Pendle Council, as he reflects on the Council’s shifting priorities over the last seven weeks.
“We've had to adapt very quickly as the impact of the virus hit us locally.
“We found new ways of working so that we could continue to provide much-needed frontline services whilst supporting people without a network of friends or family nearby.
“This is against a backdrop of managing and supporting our staff who are either sick themselves or self-isolating because a member of their family has symptoms.”
Pendle Council’s response to the coronavirus pandemic so far:
- Over 900 vulnerable people have contacted Pendle Community Support Hub for help
- 2100 vulnerable people received welfare phone calls from the Hub
- Over 1,000 food parcels have been delivered to local people every week
- Over 100 people and 40 organisations are volunteering with Pendle Community Support Hub. They’ve helped over 350 people with their food shopping and over 200 with collecting their prescriptions
- £18.5m worth of government grants have been allocated to 1,708 local businesses by the Council
- Over 40% of Council staff are working from home to keep vital services running
- Around 41,000 general waste and recycling bins and more than 4,000 garden waste bins continue to be emptied every week
Last night (Sunday 10 May) the Government announced that we must Stay alert, Control the Virus and Save Lives.
Lockdown and social distancing measures remain in place but some small changes have been introduced.
Latest guidance is currently being updated and will be available on the Government’s website - www.gov.uk
Councillor Iqbal added: “It’s likely that we’ll be living with the threat of this virus for some time so the ways in which we live and work will need to keep adapting.
“We know it won’t be easy but we’ll continue to be here to support our residents and businesses through this uncertain time.
“We understand that it’s important to restore our local economy as quickly as possible but it’s vital we continue to do all we can to prevent the spread of the virus.”
Information on how Pendle Council can support individuals and businesses is on our website – www.pendle.gov.uk/coronavirus
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