Monday, 12 April 2021

COVID 19 rules from 12th April 2021

How the rules will change on 12 April

 

Some of the rules on what you can and cannot do will change on 12 April. You can read the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’ (the roadmap out of lockdown) for more information on how COVID-19 restrictions will be eased in England. You can also read the law that underpins these changes and the ongoing restrictions.

From 12 April:

·         non-essential retail will be able to reopen

·         personal care premises such as hairdressers and nail salons will be able to reopen

·         public buildings such as libraries and community centres will be able to reopen

·         outdoor hospitality venues will be able to reopen, with table service only

·         most outdoor attractions including zoos, theme parks, and drive-in performances (such as cinemas and concerts) will be able to reopen

·         some smaller outdoor events such as fetes, literary fairs, and fairgrounds will be able to take place

·         indoor leisure and sports facilities will be able to reopen for individual exercise, or exercise with your household or support bubble

·         all childcare and supervised activities will be allowed indoors (as well as outdoors) for all children. Parent and child groups can take place indoors (as well as outdoors) for up to 15 people (children under 5 will not be counted in this number)

·         weddings, civil partnership ceremonies, wakes and other commemorative events will be able to take place for up to 15 people (anyone working is not included in this limit), including in indoor venues that are permitted to open or where an exemption applies. Wedding receptions can also take place for up to 15 people, but must take place outdoors, not including private gardens

·         self-contained accommodation will be able to open for overnight stays in England with your household or support bubble

·         you should continue to minimise the amount that you travel where possible

·         care home residents will be able to nominate two named individuals for regular indoor visits (following a rapid lateral flow test)

 

Keeping yourself and others safe

You should stay 2 metres apart from anyone who is not in your household or support bubble where possible, or 1 metre with extra precautions in place (such as wearing face coverings) if you cannot stay 2 metres apart.

You should follow the guidance on how to stop the spread of coronavirus at all times, including if you have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

 

You should follow this guidance in full to limit the transmission of COVID-19. It is underpinned by law.

Face coverings

You must wear a face covering in many indoor settings, such as shops and places of worship, and on public transport, unless you are exempt. This is the law. Read guidance on face coverings.

 

If you are clinically extremely vulnerable

If you are clinically extremely vulnerable, you could be at higher risk of severe illness from coronavirus. 

 

If you are clinically extremely vulnerable, you are no longer advised to shield. However, you should continue to follow the guidance for people who are clinically extremely vulnerable and are advised to take additional precautions to protect yourself. It is important that you continue to keep the number of social interactions that you have low and try to limit the amount of time you spend in settings where you are unable to maintain social distancing.

 

 If you have been vaccinated against COVID-19

To help protect yourself and your friends, family, and community you should continue to 

follow all of the guidance on this page even if you’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19.

The vaccines have been shown to reduce the likelihood of severe illness in most people. Like all medicines, no vaccine is completely effective, so those who have received the vaccine should continue to take recommended precautions to avoid infection.

We do not know by how much the vaccine stops COVID-19 from spreading. Even if you have been vaccinated, you could still spread COVID-19 to others.

Meeting family and friends indoors

You must not meet indoors with anybody you do not live with, unless they are part of your support bubble (if you are eligible), or another legal exemption applies.

 

Meeting friends and family outdoors (rule of 6)

You can meet up outdoors with friends and family you do not live with, either:

·         in a group of up to 6 from any number of households (children of all ages count towards the limit of 6)

·         in a group of any size from up to two households (each household can include an existing support bubble, if eligible)

If you’re in a support bubble

If you are eligible to form a support bubble, you and your support bubble count as one household towards the limit of 2 households when meeting others outdoors. This means, for example, that you and your support bubble can meet with another household, even if the group is more than 6 people.

 

Where you can meet

You can meet in a group of 6 or a larger group of any size from up to 2 households (including their support bubbles) outdoors. This includes private outdoor spaces, such as gardens, and other outdoor public places and venues that remain open. These include the following:

·         parks, beaches, countryside accessible to the public, forests

·         public and botanical gardens

·         the grounds of a heritage site

·         outdoor sculpture parks

·         allotments

·         public playgrounds

·         outdoor sports venues and facilities

If you need to enter through a house to get to a garden or other outside space and there is no alternative access, you should wear a face covering, wash or sanitise your hands when entering, and then go straight to the outside space. If you need to use the bathroom, wash your hands thoroughly and go back outside immediately. You should maintain social distancing from anyone who is not in your household or support bubble.

When you can meet with more people or meet indoors

Gatherings above the limit of 6 people or 2 households, or gatherings indoors, can only take place if they are permitted by an exception. These exceptions are listed on this page.

Where a group includes someone covered by an exception (for example, someone who is working or volunteering), they are not generally counted as part of the gatherings limit. This means, for example, a tradesperson can go into a household without breaking the limit if they are there for work, and the officiant at a wedding would not count towards the limit.

Sunday, 14 March 2021

Plaistow and Sundridge Safer Neighbourhood Team Meeting

Safer Neighbourhood Team - Meeting on Thursday March 11th
A few key points from last night’s meeting.
It was agreed that the police team should target thefts from vehicles, as their top priority
Neighbourhood patrols currently end at 12:00 midnight, these will be extended until 03:00
Most vehicle thefts are used to fund drug purchases, so this activity will also be addressed as a priority
In the majority of cases, there is no sign of forced entry, so residents are reminded to make sure that their vehicles are locked at all times
More patrols will be conducted in ‘plain clothes’, so as to apprehend rather than scare off the perpetrators
Work on the ZPods will commence on Monday March 15th
No further information is currently available with regard to the impact on policing levels, of the ward boundary changes
I hope this is useful
Regards.
Roy on behalf of LERA

For more information about the safer neighbourhood team click on the following link

Monday, 1 March 2021

Bromley Trading Standards Update

Today’s Alert! concerns the Green Homes Grant cold calling scam.  There is also advice on how to apply for the Grant and how to select a reputable trader when you need one.

 

 

We encourage you to circulate the Alert! around your network of family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, clients and members of groups or organisations you’re a part of. 

 

You may be in touch with Bromley residents who could be susceptible to scams – sharing some information about scams may prevent them from becoming a scam victim.

 

If you know anyone who would like to receive the Alert! please ask them to email us at trading.standards@bromley.gov.uk

 

 

Kind regards

 

Bromley’s Trading Standards team

 

 

 

 

Saturday, 13 February 2021

Update Newsletter - Winter Waste Collections




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Winter Waste Collections

Dear Resident,


The coldest winter weather in around a decade severely impacted recycling and waste collections throughout the week and in light of this, I wanted to contact you and outline what we are doing about this. Whilst an around- the-clock gritting operation largely successfully kept priority routes clear of ice and snow, the icy pavements in particular posed a significant issue and prevented recycling and waste collections taking place and a revised collection programme is in place for next week only. We had originally hoped that work would be ‘caught up’ but as approximately 80,000 recycling or waste collections are made each day, as the impact of the severe weather continued, it became apparent this was not going to be feasible.


All residents with scheduled collection days of Monday through to Thursday will receive a food waste collection and a non-recyclable refuse collection only, with recycling and paper collections resuming as usual from the following week. In recognition that residents in the earlier part of the week did not receive a collection, we are undertaking that all residents next week will receive a food waste collection and a non-recyclable refuse collection, with residents being asked to store recycling and paper collections for their next scheduled collections as per their usual pattern. Whilst this is not ideal, we only have a finite number of vehicles and collection staff and all will be engaged with this work, hence asking residents to store their recycling.


Full details about these temporary changes are published on the Council’s website www.bromley.gov.uk/wastenews if you want to refer to them, but I wanted to draw this to your attention and thank you for your anticipated support and understanding. 


The problems we faced earlier in the week have only been faced once or twice in the last decade, with particularly low ongoing daytime temperatures and consequently icy pavement surfaces. This had a severe impact as ice poses difficulties from a manual handling perspective as we are not just asking collection crews to walk on the ice but lift heavy containers and twist etc. The safety of residents and our collection crews is of upmost importance and, therefore, we ceased our collection service until the conditions were safe to deliver services. 


You can read more about our around-the-clock gritting operations on our website, which both includes gritting roads and pavements in high footfall locations and I want to thank the staff involved in this. I particularly want to thank our Snow Friend volunteer residents who cleared snow away or spread grit from supplies we provided in their residential street as you did make a difference for all of us.  Thank you, too, to everyone who has checked up on more vulnerable neighbours from a social distance, of course, and thank you for your support at this time.


Kind regards,

  

Councillor William Huntington-Thresher

Executive Councillor for Environment & Community Services

Wintry Weather Update -


For waste and recycling collection updates during the wintry weather and to check your collection day visit our Waste News page.

Waste and recycling collections


We are asking residents to store their recycling or paper until their next scheduled collection, with collections resuming their normal pattern from week commencing Monday 22 February.


Further details are available at www.bromley.gov.uk/wastenews

Gritting our roads


Borough-wide snow which started last weekend, including overnight, has meant that gritting and snow clearance crews have salted all 280 miles of main routes, with this work continuing through much of the week. 


Salt is routinely used to prevent ice or frost forming on priority routes. To ensure that this is effective, in periods of more extreme wintry weather, salting needs to take place on a frequent basis. 


The Council’s purpose-built gritting vehicles, equipped with GPS tracking software, focus salting operations on the main priority routes.  


Local residential side streets are not part of the Council’s gritting or snow clearance operation, and with thanks to volunteer resident Snow Friends who have cleared snow in their road.  See also Snow Friends help in clearance operation.

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Wednesday, 6 January 2021

Bromley Neighbourhood Watch Association ​ News

Our Newsletters keep you abreast of news and events from sources such as local Police, Bromley Council, Action Fraud and the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit. Please forward them to your Watch members, friends and family.

COVID-19 VACCINATION SCAM ALERT

We’ve been asked by the Met Police Cyber Crime Unit to warn you people are receiving fraudulent calls and text messages offering a COVID-19 vaccination. In some cases, people are asked to press a number on their keypad or send a text message to confirm they wish to receive the vaccine. Doing so is likely to result in a charge being applied to your phone bill.

In other cases, callers are offering the vaccine for a fee or asking for bank details.

THESE ARE SCAMS!

The vaccine is only available from the NHS and the NHS will contact you when it is your turn. At present, actual appointments are only being offered to members of the public over 80 years old.

Like all scams, the same rules apply; 

  • Don’t click on links or attachments in unexpected texts, emails or messages.
  • Challenge every request for your personal details.
  • It doesn’t matter what they say or what they know about you, don’t respond to
    unexpected phone calls, hang up, take five then verify the claim via a trusted method. (such as the usual website or official phone number).

The NHS will:

  • NEVER ask you to press a button on your keypad or send a text asking you to confirm you want the vaccine. 
  • NEVER ask for payment for the vaccine or for your bank details.

If you believe you have been the victim of fraud or identity theft, you should report this directly to Action Fraud either online; https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ or via phone 0300 123 2040.

Where the victim is vulnerable, report it to the MPS online or call 101. 

Further details of this scam can be found on the Which? Website via this link:
https://conversation.which.co.uk/scams/scam-nhs-covid-vaccine-text-message/ 

 

Kind regards,

 Bromley Neighbourhood Watch Association ​

 

BromleyStreetSign

Find us on the Web at: www.bnwa.co.uk

Saturday, 2 January 2021

Bromley Open Space Consultation by Bromley


Bromley has published a document intended to allow residents to view and comment on the proposals. 

There is a survey form to complete by 6th January 2021

Click on the link below to view the draft document and to submit your responses


https://coperscope.wordpress.com/2020/12/29/bromley-council-open-space-strategy-have-your-say-by-7-jan-2021/