Coronavirus in South Ayrshire - Updates from South Ayrshire council
- Mar 18, 2020
- 3 min read
SAC issued the following statement via Online:
"We would like to reassure residents and service users that we are doing everything we can to reduce the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on our ability to deliver services. We are working hard to ensure the critical and essential services that make a difference to communities every day continue to operate."
"We have therefore had to take a number of steps to ensure we can deliver services to those who need us most, to prevent further spread of the virus, and to protect employee and public health."
We will focus our resources on critical and essential services.
"We are working hard to ensure we are fully staffed to deliver critical services such as Home Care, Community Alarms, Child and Adult Protection Services, Residential Care, Justice Services, Emergency Property Repairs, Environmental Health, Waste Management and Homeless services. We know that for many people, the impact of coronavirus may be financial. We will therefore, provide a telephone service offering money, welfare and benefits advice, including access to crisis grants and food bank vouchers. Please call 0300 123 0900."
We will close our buildings that are normally open to the public from today (Wednesday 18 March 2020).
"We are fully staffed to handle the majority of your enquiries by phone, rather than asking customers to come into any of our customer facing buildings. The only public service where face to face enquiries are essential is Registration. Therefore, you can still register a birth, marriage or death in person, by appointment. Please call 0300 123 0900."
We will stop delivering non-essential services.
"To reduce spread of the virus, we will close the following services from today (Wednesday 18 March 2020):"
All swimming pools and activity centres (after school clubs will continue to operate);
Golf and bowling green club houses (courses and greens will still be maintained and able to be used);
All libraries;
All museums and galleries.
All community lets have also been cancelled.
We will follow national guidance on schools.
"At present the advice from Public Health Scotland is that schools should remain open as normal. However, please note, any parent, carer or child who displays any symptoms, should follow NHS advice and not go into a school. Specific advice has been given to education in relation to staff in schools."
"We will continue to provide regular updates on services affected on our website and social media
For health information on coronavirus (COVID-19) please visit NHS Inform. For information on social distancing, please visit Gov.uk website."
Customer service centres closed
F"Followingollowing UK Government guidelines we have made the decision to close a number of our frontline offices, including all Customer Service Centres, with immediate effect.
"Most enquiries can be handled over the phone on 0300 123 0900. There are also a wide range of application forms and information available online. Payments can be made online, by phone and at your local Paypoint and Post Office."
Riverside site public engagement (19 March) cancelled
"In light of recent Government advice, the public engagement event at the Grain Exchange on Thursday 19 March 2020 for the Riverside Site in Ayr, has been cancelled. We will be exploring alternative ways of sharing the latest plans."
Football match bookings
"In line with a decision by the Scottish FA to suspend all domestic and grassroots football matches, we have cancelled all football match bookings at our facilities with immediate effect, until further notice. Please note this decision is for football matches only, football training is still taking place. Bookings for other sports are unaffected at this time."
Coronavirus in Scotland
On 11 March, the World Health Organization confirmed that Coronavirus (COVID-19) can be characterised as a global pandemic.
The Department of Health and Social Care will publish updated UK data on Coronavirus (COVID-19) every day at 2pm until further notice.
After 2pm, the Scottish Government will publish an update on the situation in Scotland.
