Update on coronavirus from the leader and chief executive [March 18]

We know this is a very worrying time for our residents and our businesses. We are facing the greatest public health crisis in generations. It is a crisis which is having a major impact on all our lives.

As civic leaders, we want to reassure you and your families that any steps we take are in line with national advice and guidance.

We are working closely with our partners such as Lancashire County Council, the NHS and Public Health England.

We have four priorities we are focusing on through this testing time:

• Work with partners to protect the most vulnerable in our borough
• Protect the health and wellbeing of our staff
• Continue to provide essential services such as homelessness services and refuse collections as normally as possible
• Keep our residents and businesses up to date as possible by signposting to national guidance

Senior management at the Council are meeting daily to discuss the developing situation. We are also working closely with our leisure trust and our other cultural assets.

We will also be working with our borough’s superb community groups and organisations, providing advice and guidance to them.

Our parks will stay open but we are advising any groups to postpone events until further notice.

From Thursday, March 19, we will be cancelling all our future Council meetings and community partnership meetings until April 3 when we will review the situation and take the necessary decisions.

As part of our plan to deal with coronavirus, we have taken the decision to limit as much as possible face to face interactions. We are keeping the one stop shop open but will putting in place measures to achieve that. However, we urge residents to only come if absolutely necessary. Instead please phone on 01706 217777 in the first instance.
We will however keep all our decisions under daily review.

Please keep up to date on how services are affected by visiting our website.
We are in really troubling times. But Rossendale is a friendly and caring place. We are resilient. By working together and supporting each other, we can come through these really difficult times.

Councillor Alyson Barnes, Leader of the Council

Neil Shaw, Chief Executive of Rossendale Council