High COVID alert level in Elmbridge from Saturday

Yesterday, the government announced that Elmbridge will move into the “high” COVID alert level on Saturday (from 00:01). This is part of a new system of local alert levels, which ensures that we have the right intervention in the right places to effectively manage Coronavirus outbreaks. Every local area is categorised as either Medium Risk, High Risk or Very High Risk.

This decision was taken in response to rising Coronavirus cases in Elmbridge. Being in the “high” alert level introduces new restrictions in our borough, which are important to help get the virus back under control.

This means that, from Saturday, you must not socialise with anybody outside of your household or support bubble in any indoor setting, whether at home or in a public place. You must not socialise in a group of more than six outside, including private gardens and parks.

This is in addition to the national restrictions already in place on wearing face coverings, social distancing and working from home where possible. The full guidance on what you can and can’t do under the “high” alert level is available here.

I appreciate that moving up a tier to high alert level will be disappointing for Elmbridge residents, but these additional restrictions are necessary to help curb the spread of the virus.

Local residents have shown great resolve over recent months. We have got to follow these new rules to avoid more stringent restrictions later on. That’s how we will come through this pandemic, protect lives and mitigate the harm to businesses and jobs.

Visiting Cobham High Street

It was great to join local Chair of Cobham Chamber of Commerce, Alistair Mann, for a tour of Cobham High Street earlier today, continuing the series of visits I’ve been making to businesses across the borough.

First, Alistair and I dropped into Gordon Marks. This is a really impressive jewellery and furniture business, which counts the Royal Household among its customer base. Next we moved on to Farrants, a newsagent and tobacconist which also sells sweets and toys. Farrants has been open since 1896 and it was good to hear that it supplied a local care home with hand sanitiser earlier in the year. We then visited the health food shop Energetic Health (which also sourced and supplied hand sanitiser), Moonflower florists (which moved to a home delivery system during lockdown), and Café Fego, which also reinvented itself as a delivery and takeaway business when it wasn’t able to open. Finally, we stopped by Stoneleigh butcher’s and Evie Loves Toast, a boutique gift shop. Both are the kind of brilliant, independent local businesses that make Cobham High Street such a great place.

Cobham businesses have made heroic efforts to adapt to Coronavirus. They’ve shown real ingenuity, allowing them to keep welcoming customers in a safe manner. There was plenty of positive feedback on the government’s economic support, and it was encouraging to hear how many businesses had accessed the various schemes on offer. As we continue the national effort to beat Coronavirus, I’ll keep making sure that local businesses have the support they need to weather very tough times and bounce back.

Dom visiting the Covid-19 Hot Hub at Giggs Hill Surgery in Thames Ditton in April.

Preparing local A&Es for winter

In recent weeks there have been some very welcome funding announcements for local A&Es, which will help them to prepare for winter.

First, in September the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that St Peter’s hospital in Chertsey has been allocated £6 million for an expanded emergency department and urgent treatment centre. While St Peter’s is just outside Elmbridge, it’s widely used by local residents, so this is great news for the borough.

This funding boost will help to ensure that, ahead of winter, A&Es have the resources they need to treat patients, manage patient flow and improve infection control.

Second, over the summer DHSC also allocated Kingston Hospital £790,000 to upgrade its A&E facilities. The government has now invested £450m to upgrade A&Es in England ahead of winter.

These allocations are good news for local residents. They mean that both of our local A&Es, St Peter’s and Kingston, will have the extra investment required to deal with the additional pressures that come with the winter months.

Dom volunteering with Elmbridge Rentstart in June.

Government supports Elmbridge to house the vulnerable

I was encouraged to hear that Elmbridge has been allocated almost £73,000 by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to support rough sleepers and other vulnerable people who were housed during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The funding builds on the government’s “Everyone In” initiative, which saw almost 15,000 vulnerable people across England housed in hotels and other forms of emergency accommodation. This effort ensured that people who were either sleeping rough, in shared night shelters or at imminent risk of sleeping rough were kept safe.

The money will help Elmbridge Borough Council to provide ongoing support and emergency accommodation for these people. This could include helping them into the private rented sector, securing interim accommodation such as supported housing, or assessing what wider support they may need.

I know how important this kind of support can be from when I volunteered with Elmbridge Rentstart in June, delivering food and other essentials to former rough sleepers in Walton and Hersham. Both rehousing and ongoing support are invaluable in helping such vulnerable people to rebuild their lives, so this new funding is very welcome.

Visiting local businesses in Walton

Earlier this afternoon, I joined local Conservative candidate Kris Januszajtis-Neale to check in on shops and businesses at Walton Station and Halfway. This was the latest in a series of visits I’ve been making to shops and high streets across Elmbridge, seeing how they’ve been doing since re-opening after lockdown.

Today we dropped in to Petals of Wisdom, a great florists by Walton Station, as well as Giuseppe’s Coffee Shop, The Barber Shop, Tech Shed and Chocolate Box nearby. Being so close to the station, these businesses had a really difficult time when people stopped commuting during lockdown, so it was great to see them bouncing back.

Next, we moved on to the Halfway shops. Kris and I spoke to owners and staff at the Italian restaurant L’affamato, CIT camping and Cherry’s pharmacy. I was particularly impressed by the hard work everyone at the pharmacy has put in over this difficult period. Just like the Boots I visited in Esher recently, its services proved vital to local residents during lockdown.

Across all the businesses we visited today we saw positivity, innovative business practices as they’ve adapted to the new conditions, and appreciation for government support. All these factors will continue to be crucial in the months ahead.

Staying in touch locally during Coronavirus

Over the past six months, I’ve really valued finding new ways to keep in touch with residents and local groups, consistent with the Coronavirus rules.

This morning was a great example of this, as I took part in the latest virtual breakfast meeting of my local business club, Connect. Connect has always been a key way to keep in touch with the business community in Elmbridge and has become even more important during Coronavirus.

I appreciate the 35 businessmen and women in the meeting this morning taking the time to talk over the current economic situation and the government’s response to Coronavirus. There was a lot of interest in the measures announced in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Winter Economy Plan yesterday, but we also covered other important issues like the progress made with pupils returning to school earlier this month. My thanks to Mike Cumper for chairing the discussion.

Next up this morning, I headed over to the Esher & District Citizens Advice offices. I’m grateful to Sarah Waite and the team for allowing me to use their COVID-secure setting for a constituency surgery.

This also gave me a chance to have a quick catch up with Sarah and the team about their work locally. They and their volunteers have been doing a terrific job helping the vulnerable across Elmbridge throughout the pandemic. We should all be very thankful their hard work.

Checking in on small businesses in Hersham

It was great to be out in Hersham Village with the local Conservative councillors this afternoon, talking to small businesses about the challenges they have faced during Coronavirus.

Like so many businesses across Elmbridge, the owners and staff I met today – including in Ashton House gift shop, the AlleyCatz school uniform shop and the Bricklayers Arms – have worked really hard to get up and running safely over the last few months. This has allowed them to welcome customers back, and has been vital in supporting the local economic recovery.

The consistent message this afternoon was that, while Coronavirus was a major blow, government support has been vital in helping businesses to recover. So far, small businesses across Elmbridge have received £23.6 million in government-funded grants, while thousands of businesses have received Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans and Bounce Back Loans.

The government is continuing to tailor and adapt its support, making sure that businesses and the wider economy have the support they need. Just this week, for example, the government extended a moratorium on business evictions, meaning that commercial tenants are protected from the risk of eviction until the end of the year.

It was encouraging to see how lively Hersham was this afternoon. Over the coming months, I’ll be making sure that the government’s measures continue to support business right across Elmbridge.

Dom meeting Dr Jill Evans in March, before the Coronavirus restrictions were introduced.

Nominating Dr Jill Evans’ team for the NHS Parliamentary Awards

Earlier this month, I was delighted to nominate Dr Jill Evans and her team for the 2020 NHS Parliamentary Awards, in the “Excellence in Healthcare” category.

These awards are a great opportunity to recognise the tireless efforts made by NHS staff, and I have been very impressed with all Dr Evans’ team’s efforts and initiatives locally.

Her team (the East Elmbridge Community Services Leadership Team) have done innovative work in combining the management of multiple local teams and organisations into one system. This means that, working closely with the GP practices, the team now oversees the management of Molesey Community Hospital, local community services and a community medical team.

Close coordination between these organisations has removed unnecessary barriers between them, resulting in patients receiving more personalised, higher quality care. This is particularly beneficial for the elderly, with fewer hospital admissions and more patients being treated at home. The nomination I made recognises this great work.

Of course, like all NHS staff, Dr Evans’ team have been working particularly hard during the Coronavirus pandemic. As well as recognising the team’s innovative restructuring work, I am also using this nomination to thank them for their efforts during this difficult time.

Shortlisted nominees will be announced on 23 November, with the awards ceremony itself taking place in Parliament on 7 July 2021. I wish Dr Evans’ team the best of luck.

Opening Cobham Free School’s permanent site at Munro House

Earlier today, I was proud and delighted to open Cobham Free School’s permanent site at Munro House with Michaela Khatib (the Headteacher) and Howard Morris (the Chair of Governors).

The site has been seven years in the making, so this morning’s ceremony was a big moment for the school. Michaela and the team have worked incredibly hard on the project and have done a great job to overcome all the challenges they’ve faced along the way.

This is a fantastic boost for children and parents in Cobham. At capacity, the school will be able to accommodate an additional 495 pupils – so this new, permanent site will also help ease wider pressure on school places across the borough.

Update from South East Coast Ambulance Service

It was good to speak to Philip Astle and David Astley from South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) today. SECAmb responds to 999 and 111 calls across Surrey and the south east, and we have two of their ambulance stations locally, in Esher and Walton.

Like all parts of the NHS, SECAmb has experienced significant pressures during the Coronavirus pandemic, receiving very large volumes of calls. The service is, however, meeting targets for responding to urgent cases, and answering the average 999 call within one second.

We also discussed the impact that Coronavirus has had on SECAmb staff. Like many organisations, SECAmb has experienced difficulties with staff being off sick or in self-isolation. The situation has been improving recently, with the current proportion of staff off sick or self-isolating (1.6%) significantly lower than at the height of the pandemic (14%). The service also has good supplies of PPE to ensure that staff are properly protected when on call.

Looking ahead, it was good to hear that SECAmb has recently been able to focus more on non-Coronavirus cases, and is actively planning for the extra pressures that come with winter. Staff are also planning for any challenges related to the end of the transition period with the EU at the end of the year.

I am grateful to Philip and David for the useful briefing, and pay tribute to the dedicated work of SECAmb’s paramedics and ambulance drivers during the pandemic.