Plans for restarting activity at the rugby club.

I am writing to bring you up to date about the plans for restarting activity at the rugby club.

You will be aware of the various announcements by government about the easing of lockdown restrictions including for sporting activity.

In light of this, the various sports governing bodies have also issued guidance, and the Club Management Committee has developed a plan for how best to proceed.

I want to reassure you that we remain acutely aware of the need to proceed with caution, taking a responsible approach in the interests of the safety and health of our members as well as of the wider community. We are all also having to learn as we go, having never had to do this before.

We are starting small and in a carefully managed way so we can assess how things work and adjust gradually, and all of our members have been given guidance about how to manage the space and to abide by the social distancing rules that still apply.

As a result, there will be some cricket nets practice starting during week beginning 8^th June, with some rugby and running / athletics club activity during week beginning 15^th June. This will take place on weekday evenings mainly, on our front playing field area and also on our pitch beyond the car park.

Some limited activity may also start on weekends during the day.

We will review how this works over several weeks and then develop our plan accordingly.

If anyone has any concerns or queries over this activity please contact me on simonbilous@gmail.com.

Regards

Simon Bilous
Chairman
Dursley Rugby Club

• Rugby Club restart
• Parish Plan
• Three Bears in Lockdown
• COVID-19 Testing at the Rugby Club
• Rugby Club Car Park

Face coverings are Compulsory on Public Transport

Face coverings are to be compulsory on public transport to control the spread of coronavirus, from June 15th. The question now is will shops follow? It would now seem appropriate but time will tell.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said that all passengers using trains, trams, the London Underground, ferries, aircraft and buses would be required to cover their mouth and nose two months after he dismissed the idea as “counterproductive”.

Passengers are expected to use a scarf or homemade covering to avoid shortages of clinical facemasks for NHS and care workers. There will be exemptions for disabled people, young children and those with breathing difficulties.

Travellers who do not comply can also be fined, with enforcement carried out by police. 

This is how you can verify you are actually being contacted by the government’s Test and Trace service

Last week, the government launched its Test and Trace service, aimed at contacting those who may have come into contact with someone with coronavirus symptoms.

Over the weekend, Jenny Harries deputy chief medical officer said that people will be able to know if they are genuinely being called by Test and Trace as “it will be very obvious in the conversation that you have with them that they are genuine.”

There are actually a number of much better ways to verify if you are being contacted by genuine NHS Test and Trace staff. You should not rely on how “obvious” it seems someone is genuinely from Test and Trace. 

Here are some things to look out for.

What you will NOT (repeat NOT) be asked for

• Ask you for details of card or bank account numbers
• Ask you to provide or fill in social media login details
• Ask you to set up a pin
• Ask you to download anything 

If you are asked for these types of information, you can report the incident to Action Fraud.  

You WILL only be asked for the information found on the contact tracing website and on the gov.uk site. 

This will include:

• Your full name,
• Date of birth
• Sex
• NHS Number
• Home postcode and house number
• Telephone Number
• Email address
• COVID-19 symptoms, including when they started and their nature
• Contact details of anyone you have been in close contact with. 

How you will be contacted

• If you have tested positive for coronavirus, you will either receive a call, text, or email from NHS Test and Trace with instructions on how to share details of people you have been in close recent contact with.
• If you’ve been in contact with someone who has tested positive, you will be contacted in the same ways and asked about symptoms.
• You will only ever be called from the number 0300 013 5000, or you will be texted from “NHS”. 

However, as some have pointed out on Twitter, it is relatively easy for scammers to fake numbers. Because of this, if you do not feel comfortable talking on the phone, or suspect the call to be a scam, you can ask for an email or a text that will invite you to use the Test and Trace web site instead. 

From this email, you should only ever be directed to this web address: contact-tracing.phe.gov.uk 

You can check this by looking in the address bar near the top of your web browser to see if this is the address shown—it should also have a small padlock symbol next to it, indicating that the website connection is secure.

If you see a different address, it is likely to be a scam, and you should close the window immediately, and report the site to Google. Check carefully—scammers sometimes buy web addresses that look similar to the real address to fool people.

If in any doubt, always submit information via the Test and Trace website. Genuine tracers will be able to provide you with an account ID during the call, or it will be in a text or email sent.

A donation of plants

Thanks to the kind donation of plants from a member of the village, there will be a sale of lavender plants next week.

A significant number of lavender plants will be for sale outside St Cyr’s church with the proceeds going to the church’s disability access project.

Purchases can be made at your leisure on Monday 8th June from 10.00 am with contributions deposited in the honesty box outside the church. Any queries should be directed to Pippa Leggate at Church Farm, who has agreed to keep an eye on the process

Supply interruptions

2 Jun 2020 21:41

💧There’s a risk of water supply disruptions this evening and into tomorrow morning. 

We’d like to apologise to customers in and around the Gloucestershire area who’ve had a couple of nights of low pressure or no supply. We know just how frustrating that must be for everyone, and we’re doing everything we can to keep your water flowing but it’s being caused by the huge spike in demand we’re seeing at the moment, with hundreds of millions of litres more treated water being used than last week.

We’re working flat out to get more treated water into supply (and there are no issues with the raw water we store in our reservoirs) but, despite hitting record levels of production yesterday, customers are pretty much using the water as soon as we can make it.

That means we’re looking at using tankers to bring water directly into your area to help keep your taps on but it’d also be great if everyone could also do their bit by using a bit less water, so we’re asking everyone to ditch the sprinkler and to ditch the pressure washer, at least for the next week. 

Thank you for your understanding. 

From SDC…
“We have been informed that there could be possible water supply disruptions overnight and into tomorrow caused by low pressure in the system.  At the moment these issues have only been identified in the locations listed below which are in the south of the district.  We have been asked to identify possible locations for bottled water drop off points which will be unstaffed these have been agreed as:-

• Stinchcombe Village Hall
• North Nibley Village Hall
• Uley Sports Pavilion
• Castle Street Car Park, Dursley
• Coaley Village Hall

Vulnerable customers as identified by Severn Trent will have bottled water delivered to them directly.

• More Information

• Read the contract!
• Severn Vale Community Kitchen
• Severn & Wye Smokery
• Colesbourne Snowdrops
• Places to Eat

A photo ID guide to symptoms in larger trees

This fungal disease  is now widespread and most young ash trees in the woodland on Stinchcombe Hill are already infected. Ash is also a significant tree in hedgerows, fields and open spaces and we have many fine examples in our parish.  Although isolated ash trees have a better chance of survival, some will inevitably be lost.

The Parish Council is asking everyone to look closely at any mature ash trees on their walks or bike rides.  Please let us know the location of any that appear to be infected, with a photo if possible. Summer is the ideal time to do this because the signs are easier to spot.  The Tree Council has produced a handy illustrated guide to the symptoms (attached pdf).

We are making this request for two reasons:

1. Safety – the disease progressively weakens the tree’s structure leading to a much increased risk of falling branches, clearly a concern with large trees alongside public rights of way.
2. Replacing important trees in our landscape – we can apply for funding to plant suitable replacement trees in public open spaces, on road verges and even on private land where the trees are visible to the public.   CPRE Gloucestershire is taking applications now and projects must be completed by the end of this year.   

• From your Parish Council
• Ash die-back
• Look Out for Ash Dieback
• Tree Protection in Conservation Areas
• The Stinchcombe Wassail