Just Beverley - Latest Issue - Flipbook - Page 8
A Message from Cllr Richard Burton,
leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council
With the Prime Minister’s announcement, 2021
has started as 2020 finished, with COVID-19
again affecting our lives and work in widereaching ways as we move into a third national
lockdown.
at least mid-February. I know many of you will be
frustrated and disappointed by these restrictions,
particularly the owners, managers and employees
of businesses which continue to be affected by
the Government’s measures to deal with the virus.
The nation was asked to follow the new guidance
immediately and the restrictions will become law,
subject to Parliamentary approval.
I share your concerns and you have my deepest
sympathy if this latest phase of the pandemic
threatens your business, employment and
livelihoods.
I thought it might be helpful to highlight some of
the key aspects of the new restrictions, which will
affect some council services which we provide
to residents and businesses, and of course I
appreciate that the rules will also affect you in
other ways too.
Everyone must stay at home wherever and
whenever possible, except for a small number of
permitted reasons, such as work which cannot be
undertaken from home, going out for essential
medical needs, food shopping and exercise.
Support and childcare bubbles will continue
and people can meet one person from another
household for outdoor exercise.
The advice to people who are clinically extremely
vulnerable is not to leave home to attend work,
school, college or university and to limit the time
they spend outside their home. They should only
go out for medical appointments, exercise or if it
is essential.
Schools and colleges have closed to most pupils,
except vulnerable children and the children of
critical workers, and they will provide remote
learning for other students until at least the halfterm in February. End-of-year exams will not take
place in the summer.
Early years settings such as nurseries will stay
open however.
Restaurants can continue to offer food deliveries
but takeaway alcohol will be
banned.
Outdoor sports venues, such
as golf courses, tennis courts
and outside gyms, must close
but outdoor playgrounds will
remain open.
Amateur team sports are not
allowed but elite sport such as
Premier League football can
continue.
Communal worship and
events like funerals and
weddings can continue,
subject to limits on
attendance. More details
about the national lockdown
are available at www.gov.uk/
guidance/national-lockdownstay-at-home
The House of Commons
has been recalled to allow
MPs to vote on England’s
new restrictions and the
lockdown is due to last until
8
We will continue to do our utmost to support
businesses and residents as we deal with the
ongoing effects of the pandemic and the latest
restrictions and we have already been responding
to the announcement to implement necessary
changes to our services. You can see how the
restrictions are affecting services at
https://covid19.eastriding.gov.uk/
The Prime Minister’s announcement explained
how the spread of COVID-19 this winter has
outpaced the attempts to suppress it because
of the new variant of the virus, which made it
inevitable that tougher restrictions would be
introduced.
It means many impacts on people’s work,
children’s education, business livelihoods and
families’ financial welfare and health and wellbeing
but, as ever, the council will do everything it can to
support our local communities through this latest
challenge. Please do visit the council’s website
at https://covid19.eastriding.gov.uk/support/ to
find out about the full range of support available
for businesses, organisations and residents.
It includes information about the financial aid
available to businesses and residents, guidance
about safety and COVID-19 prevention, advice and
resources to support your mental and physical
health and wellbeing and much more besides.
In the East Riding, we have done a fantastic job
of keeping infection rates relatively low for much
of the pandemic. We should all be proud that the
responsible behaviour and sacrifices of people
across the East Riding have resulted in our current
COVID-19 infection levels being some of the
lowest in England and Wales.
Despite this fantastic effort, our infection rates
would still have inevitably grown and our local
NHS hospitals and staff would have faced an
impossible and unfair task over the coming weeks
if tougher restrictions had not been introduced.
However, there are reasons to be optimistic for a
better 2021. The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine
programme is continuing to gather pace and the
Prime Minister said that all care home residents
and their carers, everyone aged 70 and over, all
frontline health and social care workers, and the
clinically extremely vulnerable will be offered one
dose of a vaccine by mid-February.
Please continue to be patient. You don’t need to
contact the NHS, you will be contacted when it is
your turn to have the vaccine. The vaccine roll-out
will help life return to something closer to normal
but it will take time.
So, for the next few weeks, we
need to keep pulling together,
to do what we can to stop the
virus spreading further. We
need to keep doing the basics
and to keep encouraging our
families, friends, colleagues and
our communities across the
East Riding to play their part to
minimise infection rates over the
coming months.
That means continuing to follow
the public health guidance including our 3 Steps To Safety:
Prevent. Notice. Act. If people
keep doing the right things we
will get through this and we can
look forward to a better spring
and a great summer, enjoying all
the things we love to do with our
family and friends.
Thank you for your continued
support.
#TogetherEastRiding
w w w. j u s t b e v e r l e y. c o . u k
