A “Help beat Covid-19″ A5 Flyer has been delivered to every house in Gloucestershire containing some useful information and contact details for all residents. Please see the copy below.
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| The application process for all business grants via Cotswold District Council has now reopened with individuals encouraged to check their eligibility and apply through the Council website. |
| A series of different business grants have been made available by the Government with local businesses applying to their local council to access the funding where they are eligible.
Since the pandemic started, Cotswold District Council has distributed 2,154 grants totalling more than £22m in vital funding to local businesses. Following the series of changes to tiers before Christmas, many businesses were left confused on what they were entitled to. The Council has simplified the highly complicated grant applications into two simple forms with staff ensuring that once a business applies it is allocated all the grants it is eligible for without business owners having to apply multiple times. Businesses will only need to apply once depending on whether they were closed by national restrictions or severely impacted but allowed to remain open. The application form covers the latest lockdown grants as well as those relating to various previous restrictions in force since November. Business owners that have applied for a grant since November do not need to re-apply by completing another form. Instead, they are being contacted by email from tomorrow and asked to indicate which grants they believe they are entitled to. Their eligibility will then be assessed by the council revenues team. Businesses are urged to make sure they look out for council emails if they had applied since November and put in an application if they have not done so since the November lockdown started. Any business waiting for payment, unsure of the status of their application or wondering whether they should apply for a grant, should see the dedicated web page: |
Cotswold District Council (CDC) want to update you on support available to people that are shielding or self-isolating during this lockdown.
Support available to clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people is the same as during the November lockdown.
CEV individuals are advised that if they need any additional support to help follow the guidance, their local council may be able to help and are encouraged to register for support via the National Shielding Service System website (NSSS): www.gov.uk/coronavirus-shielding-support. The NSSS website has been activated nationally, so all CEV individuals can now use it to request support. This means that in addition to using the service to ask for priority access to supermarket deliveries, they will be able to ask for their local authority to contact them to talk about any local support that may be available. The user will see the same question on local support as was available to all CEV users during November’s national restrictions. Where CEV individuals have previously registered on the NSSS, they are able to login and update their support needs – or submit a new registration, which will automatically override the old one.
During the last lockdown CDC proactively called all CEV in the district. Numbers of those needing support were very low and they are now aware of those people. This time CDC are making contact only with those patients that have been added to the CEV list since October and those being added going forward to see if there is anything they need help with.
All other residents (not CEV) needing help with basic things like shopping or medication during this lockdown are advised to seek help from family or friends. If this is not possible then the Gloucestershire Help Hub is available for referrals. As before, the Community Wellbeing Team will make contact with people to find appropriate local support.
https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/gloucestershires-community-help-hub/get-help/
Tel: 01452 583519
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Businesses in the Cotswolds are being reassured that the Council’s finance team is actively assessing Covid-19 grant applications against the backdrop of a rapidly changing national situation.
To date, the Council has paid out £1,763,554 to 1,110 businesses from the mandatory and discretionary schemes for the lockdown ending on 2 December.
Applications covering the Tier 3 and 4 restrictions period from 2 December to 4 January are in the process of being assessed along with payments to pubs where food comprises up to 50 per cent of their income.
The Council finance team is also now reviewing fresh Government guidance for the new lockdown one-off top-up grant for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. The grant is valued at £4,000, £6,000 or £9,000 per property, depending on rateable value.
Further information on the new scheme please visit:
Cllr Tony Dale , Cabinet Member for the Economy, said: “We appreciate business concerns and our team is working incredibly hard to process applications as quickly as possible. An already complicated set of grants has been made more so by the new lockdown but I would like to reassure business owners that we will process payments as soon as we can and provide updates on new rounds of grants once we have received all of the guidance.”
Information on the different grants available during local restrictions and lockdowns are available on the Council’s business grants webpage.
You must stay at home. The single most important action we can all take is to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.
You should follow this guidance immediately. The law will be updated to reflect these new rules. For full details click here.
You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary. You may leave the home to:
Colleges, primary and secondary schools will remain open only for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers. All other children will learn remotely until February half term. Early Years settings remain open.
Higher Education provision will remain online until mid February for all except future critical worker courses.
If you do leave home for a permitted reason, you should always stay local in the village, town, or part of the city where you live. You may leave your local area for a legally permitted reason, such as for work.
If you are clinically extremely vulnerable you should only go out for medical appointments, exercise or if it is essential. You should not attend work
You cannot leave your home to meet socially with anyone you do not live with or are not in a support bubble with (if you are legally permitted to form one).
You may exercise on your own, with one other person, or with your household or support bubble.
You should not meet other people you do not live with, or have formed a support bubble with, unless for a permitted reason.
Stay 2 metres apart from anyone not in your household.