In response to the government announcement that England is to enter lockdown this week, the leader of Dorset Council has said he’s hopeful that most council services will be unaffected by the new set of rules to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
This is unlike the first lockdown that started in March 2020, when many council resources were redeployed to provide emergency support for vital services like the delivery of food parcels for people who were shielding.
This meant that services like the garden waste collection were suspended. By law under the first lockdown, all household waste centres, including the one in Swanage, were closed across England.
A second national lockdown in England will start on Thursday 5th November and last until Wednesday 2nd December 2020.
Leader of Dorset Council, Councillor Spencer Flower
“This is undoubtedly a worrying time”
During this time, Councillor Spencer Flower, Leader of Dorset Council, is urging Dorset residents to all pull together again to reduce the infection rate in the county.
He said:
“The collective efforts of people across Dorset have kept us in Tier 1 up to now and while most people here have been compliant with the rules, the disease is spreading nationwide, including in the South West, and we must all act now to reduce the infection rate.
“This is undoubtedly a worrying time, so I want to reassure residents that Dorset Council stands ready, once again, to support our communities by continuing to provide essential services including paying out financial packages to businesses and supporting clinically vulnerable people.
“I’ll be able to make a further statement as soon as I know more detail on the level of support Government is offering to businesses and how the lockdown is likely to affect council services but I am hopeful most of our services, like bin collections and household recycling centres will be largely unaffected by this latest set of rules.
“Everyone wants to be able to join their families at Christmas which is why we must all do our best to obey the rules now. I am calling on the people of Dorset to pull together, as we have done before, to help each other and our communities through this second lockdown.”
