Latest news and advice on COVID-19 from Wiltshire Council

We will be providing updates on our services on our website and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

For central government updates follow:
Public Health England
NHS
Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Fly tipping will not be tolerated

We’re aware that this unprecedented situation means you are unable to take large items to your local household recycling centre currently. However, this does not mean it’s acceptable to fly tip items in Wiltshire. We have not seen a significant uplift in fly-tipping incidents over the past few weeks, and we want to further reduce the number of fly-tips in our beautiful county. If you do have excess waste that you would usually take to a household recycling centre, please store it safely until the centres reopen, and don’t be tempted to use unlicensed waste carriers or make use of ‘man with a van’ advertisements on social media.

Fly tipping is a criminal offence and penalties for offenders include:

• Unlimited fine and/or five years’ imprisonment (Crown Court).
• £50,000 fine and /or 12 months’ imprisonment (Magistrates Court).

A Fixed Penalty Notice of £400 if they are caught fly-tipping small scale waste

Update on business government grant scheme

We understand this is a challenging time for businesses affected by the Coronavirus outbreak and we’re endeavouring to issue the grants to eligible businesses, as quickly as possible. Over a third of the grants have already been paid. The following may help answer common queries about the grant process:

• Businesses eligible for the Small Business grant or the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure grant can receive one grant per eligible property. Businesses cannot receive both grants on the same property
• Even if your business is still open you can submit a form to receive your grant
• This government grant is not a loan and does not need to be paid back. However, if grants are paid incorrectly or due to incorrect information they will need to be repaid
• 50% of forms submitted do not provide all the information we need which causes a delay in verifying and processing the form
• If you do find the missing information please email it to Covid-19BusinessSupport@wiltshire.gov.uk and include the application ref number from the acknowledgement email issued on submission of your form
• Our assessors will contact you by telephone or email if they require further information from you. As the teams are working seven days a week you may be contacted over the weekend
• At this stage we are unable to advise the length of time between the form being submitted and the grant being paid
• We will email you if your form has been approved and the grant is being paid into your bank account
• All local authorities are unable to make bank transfers over the weekend or on bank holidays. The funds will take a few days to enter your bank account

If you haven’t yet submitted your grant form, please complete the form as soon as possible.

If you think you are eligible but are unable to visit your business to pick up your letter you can still complete the online form.

More business advice and support

Quit for COVID

As the Government highlights the risks to smokers from COVID-19, we’re joining health professionals in calling on all smokers to #QuitforCovid.

Smoking harms the immune system, reducing the body’s natural protection against infections, like coronavirus. Smokers are therefore at greater risk of:
• getting acute respiratory infections
• the infection lasting longer
• the infection being more serious than it would be for someone who does not smoke.

New evidence shows that smokers are 14 times more likely to develop severe symptoms from COVID-19.

More help on how you can Quit for COVID

Wiltshire Wellbeing Hub

Our Wiltshire Wellbeing Hub continues to be a vital tool for vulnerable members of the community, during this COVID-19 situation.

Food parcels being delivered by us through the hub are emergency parcels to last people for three days while more sustainable solutions are found, such as a delivery by the voluntary sector. We are charging for these parcels where appropriate. Please be assured that we will still be providing food parcels without charge for those that can show they are unable to afford them.

The charges are £20 to cover at least three days worth of food for one person, either meat or vegetarian, and up to £25 if the household has specialist dietary requirements such as gluten free.

More on our Wiltshire Wellbeing Hub

We’re here and ready to support you

That’s the message going out to vulnerable people who may be victims of domestic abuse in Wiltshire amid concerns some people may decide not to access support services or call our partners, Wiltshire Police during these challenging times.

But the message is these vital domestic abuse services are still working and people can still access services if they need them – online or on the phone.

People who are living with domestic abuse or know someone who is living with the impacts of domestic abuse can call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247 which is freephone in partnership with Women’s Aid and Refuge, or in an emergency call 999.

National offer day – School Admissions

99% of Wiltshire families have been offered one of their three primary school preferences for this September with 94% offered their first preference.

Parents who applied online can see which school their child will attend by going online.

Most parents now apply for places online with 96% of the 5,297 applications received doing so. Those who submitted a paper application form will be contacted by email to inform them how they can find out the outcome of their application.

More on national offer day for primary admissions

Father and son support people to be healthy

A member of our Active Health team enlisted the help of his son to put together a short exercise video to support those individuals who are currently isolating at home.
We have developed a wide range of online services that are now available on our Active Communities resource page.
Richard Latham, with the help of his 17-year old son Mace, a Warminster Kingdown School A-Level student, made a 20-minute video to help those who don’t have access to their usual exercise programmes.

Watch the video now

Join in the rhyme time fun

Our Facebook live rhyme time sessions are proving to be really popular. Below is our weekly schedule of activity that you and your little ones can join in with every day. You can also catch-up the archive of sessions on our libraries’ dedicated YouTube channel

Helping to get the kids active after the school holiday

If you need any help to get the kids active after the school holiday, or activities for even younger children,  then look no further than our Active Communities resources. We have collated a host of fun activities for you all to try out at home, including:

• PE with Joe – available weekdays live at 9am on his YouTube channel
• The Youth Sport Trust has a variety of activities that can be completed at home and can be adapted to suit a range of ages and abilities
• The FA’s free SuperKicks app is available with hundreds of challenges with various levels built in for young people to try
• Gymnastics HQ have developed a series of activity plans to keep active and practising your gymnastics
• Early Movers has practical ideas to help with babies and young children’s physical development