Council staff rise to the challenge of keeping Hastings going during pandemic

But with things far from normal at the moment, it should be no surprise that councils have been forced to rapidly adapt to a new world.

Among those to face the challenge is Hastings Borough Council, which, with the majority of its staff working from home, has had to make some major changes to how it operates.

“I’m probably doing more hours now than I have in quite a while,” says enforcement manager Paul Cosson.

A veteran employee, who has worked for the council for more than 21 years, Paul, 44, manages the warden service. 

His team is normally responsible for monitoring the council’s car parks and enforcing its bylaws, such as those for antisocial behaviour and dog fouling.

Since the lockdown, however, Paul’s team has taken on a range of new responsibilities in addition to their usual fare, including patrolling parks to advise residents of the social distancing rules and  delivering medicine and supplies through the new community hub.

Paul’s team has also been working to make the town’s car parks free for NHS staff and keyworkers who may be finding it difficult to find free spaces near to their homes.

He said: “We are busy, we have never been more stretched. We are quite a small team and we are working seven days a week, just trying to respond to all the types of new requests we’ve been getting. But to be fair to the warden service, they have embraced the changes. 

“Recently we started working in the council’s Covid Hub and we are delivering prescriptions and food parcels to the most vulnerable people who are in our community. We did our first deliveries at the weekend.

“When you think about working for a local authority, it is a bit cliche, but part of the reason you do that is because you want to make a difference and be of benefit to the community, be it visitors or residents.

“Especially with the work we are doing in the hub now, we really are making a positive difference to people’s circumstances, which is a great thing to do.”

The hub itself is a joint venture between the borough council, Hastings Voluntary Action and East Sussex County Council, which aims to give residents support or direct them to other services which can help.

As of the end of the last month, the hub had received 624 registrations from residents seeking support.

Large numbers of council staff have been reassigned to manage the hub and triage applications.

As well as the support for the most vulnerable residents, the council has been active in giving out government grants to local businesses.

It has also paid out millions in grants to more than a thousand business premises within the borough.

The council is offering support for residents through other support schemes.

Most of this support is being directed through the community contact team, most of whom are working from home, answering calls from concerned residents.

The team includes customer service office Cheryl Jarvis, 45, who is balancing her work with caring for her five-year-old daughter. 

“If you’re on the phones it’s a non-stop day of phonecalls from beginning to end,” says Cheryl.

“It is not a hard job but it is a challenging job. Everybody phones about something different and there is so much to know.

“Everybody is in the same boat now. We used to only talk to people who had lost their jobs or hadn’t got any money. But now half of England hasn’t got a job, they are all struggling. 

“You hear from people who could be you. They’ve worked for years but because they haven’t got any savings they don’t know what to do.

“If the benefits system and council tax didn’t keep running then we would be in an even worse state. If the council had the time off where would we be two months down the line?”

Some face-to-face support is also being maintained, for those without access to phones or the internet, through a community contact centre at Muriel Matters House. The council says the safety of the centre is being assessed daily to protect staff and public.

Other areas of the council’s services, however, are continuing much as before. This includes local homelessness outreach work, which is continuing with necessary precautions taken.

The majority of rough sleepers have also been found accommodation as per government guidelines, the council says.

“I think it is important that people are aware we were housing as many rough sleepers as we could prior to Covid-19,” says housing options officer Joel Newton, 41.

“Although it has affected what we offer some people in some circumstances, generally those offers are there for people. 

“If there are people [residents] are worried about, then they need to fill out Streetlink forms and we will get out to speak with them as soon as we can. 

“Obviously what we don’t want is people approaching people at the moment with the government advice, so just go to the Streetlink website.

“I think the important message to get out there is, if there are people we don’t know about … that are still people out there working to help them. We have not stopped in any way the way we work, other than working from home of course.”

Waste collections are another area of council services to continue despite the lockdown, although parts of the service – such as the collection of bulky waste – have been suspended.

Garden waste collections had also been suspended, but were reinstituted earlier this week.

Waste and cleansing services manager Cameron Morley, 31, said: “I would say there is probably more to think about. The government class us as key workers, the waste service itself is a frontline service, an essential service that has to carry on.

“You have to balance the health and safety implications of the coronavirus and the potential of catching it, with the health and safety implications of things like manual handling and the dangers that are inherent to the service itself.

“In all situations we are trying to make sure that staff have the PPE they need and that they are following the right guidance. 

“[Staff] have been brilliant, absolutely brilliant. They have worked really hard along with us every single step of the way. We’ve been really, really impressed with how everyone is responding. 

“One of the good things this situation has highlighted is how willing we all are to work as a team.

“It doesn’t matter what somebody does for a living. It doesn’t matter what your normal day job is. That goes to the side so that we can prioritse what is most important – caring for the community.”

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.