Mansfield: Council announces plans to start easing lockdown

Hayley Barsby, chief executive, said: “The government has announced a roadmap to Covid recovery and guidance on how we can start to make changes to the lockdown.

“The aim of the recovery roadmap is to get the economy moving again, to give people hope that as a country, we can rebuild while at the same time safeguarding those at risk from coronavirus to help save lives.

“Mansfield Council will continue to put safety of staff and customers first and ensure that services are there for those who need them the most.

“Vulnerable members of our community will remain our prime concern as we enter our recovery programme.

“The council's priority will be to continue to deliver critical services, while reviewing our frontline provision to ensure we can best meet the needs of residents and businesses across the district.

“We’re carrying out risk assessments across all our services so that our teams can work safely in the community.

“Any changes to our programme of work will be made on insight, led by government guidance, and a common sense implementation of the rules.

“Our fortnightly garden waste service is being re-instated from Monday, May 18.

“We are also now accepting sign-ups and delivering brown bins to new customers again.

“In addition, we are also bringing back a limited bulky waste collection service, again from Monday, May 18 and with bookings are now being taken on that too.

“As half of the county’s waste and recycling sites are due to reopen on May 18, the council continues to negotiate with Nottinghamshire County Council to bring waste and recycling centres in the Mansfield district back in to use as soon as possible.

“The implementation of our glass recycling scheme is now likely to be delayed due to the increased financial pressures the council is currently facing as a result of the virus crisis.

“This project is being reviewed and a decision on it will be made shortly.

“We have now opened the gates to our parks again so that visitors can travel to them by car.

“Playgrounds and trim trails will remain closed until the government guidance changes, though we are planning to reopen other facilities, including outdoor tennis courts and our pitch and putt course at King George V Park, once risk assessments and new working processes have been put into place.

“We ask all our customers to adhere to government advice and stay alert, stay safe and help to control the spread of coronavirus.

“Our much-loved cultural venues are expected to remain closed to the public until September at the earliest.

“We hope to welcome back our customers as soon as social distancing rules change.

“For now, the Civic Centre will also stay closed but the customer services team remains available to support our customers, seven days a week, by phone and online.

“Our contact centre team is handling hundreds of telephone calls a day, responding to emails and requests for service via our portal.

“Business support continues to be provided daily through email, telephone and online.

“Where we have appointments with customers who need us ‘in person’, we will find suitable alternatives to face-to-face contact, by using video conferencing.

“Tenants also have contact with our housing team. Since the start of the lockdown on 23 March, the council has carried out more than 1,000 urgent housing repairs.

“We are now assessing the government’s new guidance on working in homes and will look to re-introduce other repair and maintenance services in a safe and controlled way, to protect our colleagues and our customers.

“The lockdown means we have had to deliver our services differently to make best use of technology and encourage online self-service.

"This shift is in line with our long term digital transformation ambitions to become a modern 21st century authority and something we will continue to accelerate. This includes changes to our governance to deal with our modern approach to democracy - our first virtual planning meeting is scheduled for Monday 18 May.

“Over the next few months, and based on government advice, we will implement new procedures and routines to support safe office working, in preparation for when we can start reopening our buildings. In the meantime, to stay safe, our office-based workforce will continue to work from home.

“Finally we’d like to thank all our customers for their patience and co-operation at this time. The kindness and support for our frontline workers has been very much appreciated.”

To find out more on service changes go to www.mansfield.gov.uk/coronavirus.