Choose from a great range of fiction and non-fiction
reading for adults and children. We are investing in more titles in response to
the current situation. Download the Libby or Borrowbox apps.
eMagazines and eNews https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/enewsPressreader and RBdigital magazines provide thousands of UK
and international titles of leisure reading or current affairs for you to read
online or download. Time to garden, get creative or find out what’s going on
around the world through curated news content.
Download the Oxfordshire
Libraries app to your tablet or phone from
your app store.
Lots of our digital services have their own apps, too such
as Libby for Overdrive eBooks, Borrowbox, Pressreader, RBdigital Magazines and
Naxos Music Library.
The Dix Pit household waste recycling centre will reopen on Monday
18 May but residents are being urged to hold their visit unless it is
absolutely essential.
Long tailbacks are expected at the site run by Oxfordshire County Council. These are set to be exacerbated by reduced opening hours and the number of vehicles accessing the site being reduced by 50 per cent to allow for social distancing. Government guidance says that trips to a recycling centre should only be made if ‘essential’– that is if the waste cannot be stored safely without harm to health. It adds: “It would be reasonable for residents to undertake a journey to a HWRC if the waste or recycling could not be stored safely at home or disposed of through other legitimate routes such as a dedicated collection. “By this we mean that the waste/recycling could not be stored on their property without causing a risk of injury, health or harm to the resident or other members of their household or harm to public health and amenity.”
Cllr Norman MacRae, Cabinet Member for the Environment at West Oxfordshire District Council, said: “We know there has been considerable frustration with the site being closed but hopefully this decision will help ease the situation and help prevent fly-tipping. “I would urge residents not to react too hastily though as we don’t want to see the site overwhelmed. If you can delay for a while longer, this would help everyone concerned.”
Things to remember when visiting the reopened centres: You should only visit the site if you cannot safely store your waste at home. Revised opening hours: All sites will open at 8am and close at 4pm to allow them to be cleaned for the following day. The summer evening opening hours are suspended. Vehicle numbers and parking bays will be reduced on site, and once the maximum is reached the site will operate on a one-out one-in basis. PLEASE NOTE the potential for long delays and queues. Please follow any instructions given by traffic marshals to ensure queues are managed safely Charges for non-household waste brought to sites will continue and this will be by contactless card payment only. Residents are expected to self-police and abide by social distancing of two metres from site teams and other residents at all times. For an initial period, no hire vans or trailers will be permitted onto sites. Site teams will be there for guidance only and will not be able to assist residents in unloading their waste. Only one resident will be permitted out of the vehicle, unless it is to unload a heavy load which would otherwise be unsafe to remove. Visits are best made by just one person per vehicle.
In line with Public Health England guidance, residents who are vulnerable, or who are showing symptoms which may indicate coronavirus, should not visit household recycling centres. Residents are requested to ensure all waste is pre-sorted before arriving at site to ensure minimum time on site. Please refer to the Oxfordshire County Council website before leaving home to familiarise yourself with these and to avoid frustration and delay: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wastereopenquestions
The bulky waste service for residents is being started again
to help residents dispose of larger items.
While it is
still subject to some restrictions, residents will still be able to arrange
for the collection of up to three items per household including furniture,
white goods and large electrical items.
Cllr Norman
MacRae, Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “I am delighted to see this
service starting again. We have recognised the inconvenience that the
suspension of the bulky waste collection has caused to residents.
“I am sure
residents will appreciate the hard work and determination of our officers and
our contractor, Ubico, to facilitate this. We have listened to concerns
around fly-tipping and acted accordingly.”
The bulky waste
teams will be operating to strict Government guidelines on social distancing.
Currently, no
beds, mattresses, sofas or carpets will be collected but the service is
subject to ongoing review.
For more
information and to book a collection, see:
https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/getting-rid-of-large-items/
The
request for volunteers made by Hailey Parish Council in our first leaflet was
overwhelming. We have around 50
volunteers registered with us, around 40 of whom are on our Hailey Help Hub
(HHH) WhatsApp group and can respond quickly to requests for help with
shopping, prescription collection or just a phone chat if anyone is feeling a
bit low. This is a FANTASTIC response. We also know that there are many other people
who are quietly helping their friends and neighbours.
So,
a HUGE thank you to everyone from Hailey Parish Council
IF YOU NEED HELP, CONTACT YOUR PARISH
COUNCILLOR
Middletown & Foxburrow
Graham Knaggs
– 899125Michael Drew – 70262
Delly
End & Whiteoak Green
Andy Smith –
868796 or 07831 500134Tina Rogers –
07774 259199
Poffley End
Ann Gibson 700162 or 07771 711187Calvert
McGibbon – 705301
New
Yatt
Giles Doland – 07971 511926
West Oxfordshire District Council have set up a dedicated helpline to offer help and advice
For extremely vulnerable Oxfordshire residents who have received a letter from the
NHS and who have no support network, local councils and the voluntary and
community sector have created dedicated points of contact offering priority
support across the county.
Phone lines open
Mon-Fri 8:30-8:00 or Sat-Sun 9:00-5:00
For any resident wishing to volunteer or set up a community group
there is a website now set up specific for Oxfordshire with lots of information
on it. Please visit: www.oxfordshireallin.org
Oxford Health
NHS Foundation Trust has launched
a 24/7 mental health helpline to take pressure off 111. The line will help
get the right mental health advice for people of all ages including children
and older adults
T: 01865 904 997 (adults)
T: 01865 904 998 (children and young people)
Guideposts, a national mental health and
wellbeing charity, offers free advice and support over the phone or via
webchat. Lines open Monday to Friday 9-5pm
T: 0300 222 5709
E: hereinfo@guideposts.org.uk
W: www.herefirst.org.uk
Age UK offers advice and
assistance to people with a friendly, weekly call to see how you are and to
problem-solve any practical problems. Leave your name and number and someone
will call back as soon as possible (Monday to Friday).
T: 01865 411 288
Dementia UK –
If you have a diagnosis of dementia, or are a carer or relative of someone who
has, DementiaUK can provide advice and support. Support line open Monday to
Friday 9am – 6pm. T: 01865 410 210
E: info@dementiaoxfordshire.org.uk
W: www.dementiauk.org
Oxfordshire
Domestic Abuse Services offers free services to anybody aged 16+ experiencing
domestic abuse. Their Oxfordshire Domestic Abuse Helpline is still open and
available Monday to Friday 10am – 7pm. T: 0800 731 0055
E: das@a2dominion.co.uk
* Alternatively, you can call the 24-hour
National Domestic Abuse Helpline
T: 0808 2000 247.
Cottsway Housing
customers who have any
concerns about how COVID-19 pandemic affects them or their tenancy can refer to
the website www.cottsway.co.uk/coronavirus or alternatively they can telephone
Customer Services on 01993 890000.
Oxfordshire
Community Foundation’s (OCF) Resilience Fund to support organisations respond to COVID-19
and recover stronger is now up and running.
For further information contact http://oxfordshire.org/.
Government Grants to businesses affected by the COVID-19
crisis remains WODC’s top priority.
Businesses concerned about their grant application can contact the
council either by telephone on 01993 861070 or by email to local.taxation@westoxon.gov.uk quoting your business rates account
number. Businesses that have not applied
can check their eligibility and download the form from the website COVID-19
business grants.
Job Retention Scheme Portal to Open: If you cannot maintain your current
workforce because your operations have been severely affected by COVID-19, you
can furlough employees and apply for a grant that covers 80% of their usual
monthly wage costs up to £2,500 per month, through the Coronavirus Job
Retention Scheme. This scheme is
administered by HMRC and the portal for making applications opened on Monday 20 April:
Contact: Coronavirus
Job Retention Scheme.
CBILS Business Loan Update: CBILS is the Coronavirus Business
Interruption Loan Scheme which gives lenders a government-backed guarantee for
the loan repayments to encourage more lending.
Lenders can provide up to £5million in the form of:
Term Loans, Overdrafts, Invoice Finance and Asset Finance.
The British
Business Bank website sets out the eligibility criteria as well as the
information for which lenders will ask in support of an application.
Contact: British Business Bank CBILS
1-to-1 Business Advice: OxLEP has established a new 1-to-1
business advice service to help businesses struggling to get support through
the COVID-19 crisis.
This service
includes Guidance on:
Business resilience, Cash flow, Cost reductions and
Diversification.
See OxLEP website
for more information on this and other existing business support programmes:
Contact: OxLEP business support programmes.
Summary of Business Support
The Government’s
business support website sets out the full range of business support measures
that have been made available to UK businesses and employees.
The Government
have recently introduced new temporary legislation enabling PCs to hold remote
meetings.
The public are still invited to these meetings (usually 2nd Monday of month). If you would like to join, then please email Andy Smith by 6.30pm of the day of the meeting and he will send you the Zoom link to access it.
There will
still be a public time item for your views to be heard. The rest of the time,
the PC asks that you mute yourself so there is no extra background disturbance.
Health and well-being services affected during
the coronavirus:
There are a range of
well-being and health services that are affected during this period. If you
need to find out about services such as: support to quit smoking, sexual health
clinics and weight management sessions, please click here.
Local
information about services affected during the Coronavirus:
Updates about critical frontline services such as fire and rescue, waste
collections, highways and children’s social care:
If
anyone, of any age, would like to make a little Easter garden for next weekend
that would be lovely. You could put it on a plate or a box or whatever
you have to hand, using moss, stones, twigs and flowers. If you would like, it
could go along the path near the church which would look lovely. Or perhaps you
would rather keep it at home and maybe post a photo of it on line. Either
way it would be great to see your ideas.
Keep
well and safe, and if you would like to be included in the church emails, zoom
service details, or just want a chat, please contact Sue Drew 702624 or Elpie
Lewis 703070 elpielewis99@aol.com
Follow the guidance on the Public Health England website
if anyone in your household suspects they have Coronavirus.
Individuals with confirmed Coronavirus can store their
personal waste (for example, used tissues and disposable cleaning cloths)
securely within disposable bags. When
appropriate, these bags should be removed and placed into another bag and
securely tied or sealed and kept separate from other wastes.
This must be stored for at least 72 hours before being
put in your usual domestic or household waste bin.
Other household waste can be disposed of as normal
Below is a link to information that you might want to
know about for yourself or others:
1. If you are – or
someone you know is – a clinically extremely vulnerable person and need
support:
“If you have a medical condition which makes you
extremely vulnerable to coronavirus (COVID 19), register and tell us whether or
not you need support.
You may have received a letter from the NHS telling you
that you’re clinically extremely vulnerable, or been contacted by your GP or
hospital clinician. If this has not
happened, contact your GP or clinician after you register with this service.
It may take time for any support offered through this
service to arrive.
Wherever possible
you should continue to rely on friends, family and wider support to help you
meet your needs.
You can register yourself, or on behalf of someone else
