Column by the leader of Stroud District Council, Doina Cornell.

This has been a week like no other for many generations, and the lives of so many people have been turned upside down. As a council, it’s our job to respond – that means prioritising the services which matter most and redeploying some staff to meet the demand. It is hard to summarise all that has happened in this past week, but I will try to convey how Stroud District Council is responding to the residents, businesses and communities which we serve.

By this week very few staff will be left in Ebley Mill, which is already shut to the public. In line with Government advice, whoever can do so is now working from home. As well as those essential services that need to keep running (waste and recycling, and environmental health for example), resources have been focussed into our community response, customer services and communications. Our main task now is to coordinate support for the most vulnerable in our communities across the district: SDC is the lynchpin between the grassroots groups and the county’s Local Resilience Forum which is the key emergency body bringing together all frontline services and public sector to coordinate all the work that is needed.

This week SDC launched an interactive map of the district to show where all community support groups are stroud.gov.uk/health-wellbeing/coronavirus/find-support-services-map. If you want to offer help, or know of anyone who needs help, please register at the county hub: gloucestershire.gov.uk/gloucestershires-community-help-hub and there is now a dedicated phone line too – 01452 583519. Our Customer Service team is staffed by more officers than before. If you know of people with queries, please visit stroud.gov.uk/health-wellbeing/coronavirus. If they can’t find the answer, they can email us at customer.services@stroud.gov.uk or call us on 01453 766321.