Your Residents Association Newsletter

COVID Update

From Monday 14 September, you must not meet with people from other households socially in groups of more than 6. This will apply indoors and outdoors. COVID-19 Secure venues, such as restaurants and hospitality venues, can still host larger numbers in total but groups of up to 6 must not mix or form larger groups. Education and work settings are unaffected, and organised team sports will still be able to proceed, as will weddings and funerals up to 30.

Facemasks are now compulsory for all bar staff, waiters and non-seated customers, and fines for not wearing a mask in these settings has been raised to £200.

BCP Vote of No confidence

A motion of no confidence in the Leader of BCP Cllr Slade was passed at Full Council on Tuesday 15 September. Therefore, Councillor Slade ceased to be Leader of the council. According to the constitution of the council, Councillor Mark Howell, Deputy Leader, will now act temporarily in the Leader's role.

An Extraordinary Full Council meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday 1 October 2020, to elect a Leader of the Council. Following this meeting, the appointed Leader of the Council will select his or her Cabinet and form an administration.

Beryl Bikes arrive in Christchurch

Following its success in Bournemouth and Poole, Thursday 10 September marked the extension of our local bike share scheme into Christchurch.

NHS Trusts to Merge

Two NHS trusts will merge following approval by both Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust boards of directors and councils of governors. Our regulator NHS England and Improvement will issue the legal orders this Friday to authorise that our two trusts will join on Thursday 1 October to create University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.

Christchurch Town Council Neighbourhood Plan

Christchurch Town Council is looking for 7 community volunteer members for its Neighbourhood Plan Working Group.

DO YOU want to be part of a dynamic team of councillors, professionals, and community leaders?

Action of Newspaper Distributor Saves the Life of An Elderly Man

A ‘paper girl’ from Christchurch has been given a special recognition award by Dorset Police for making a life-saving call after noticing something out of the ordinary when delivering the paper to an elderly man’s home.

On Tuesday 15 September 2020, Naomi Jupp, 15, was making her regular delivery to a property in Christchurch. She noticed that the newspaper wouldn’t go through the letterbox as easily as usual.

Naomi was concerned that the resident may not be able to collect his paper from inside the door. To check whether her worries were warranted, Naomi left the newspaper half hanging out of the letterbox to see if it would be taken by the time she made her delivery the next day.

When she returned, she saw that it was still there and immediately called the police using 101 to report her concerns. Following Naomi’s call, officers attended the address, gained entry and discovered an elderly man was in need of urgent medical attention. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

In recognition of the young girl’s heroic and speedy action, officers from the local neighbourhood policing team presented her with a Neighbourhood Inspector’s Special Recognition award.

Neighbourhood Police Inspector Nick Lee said: “Naomi’s actions saved this gentleman’s life and she should feel incredibly proud of herself. The award is our way of recognising this.

“Officers at Dorset Police are trained to be inquisitive and look closely for signs of vulnerability – Naomi’s actions have certainly echoed this.

“We should all look out for each other, particularly during the current situation with COVID-19. Like Naomi, don’t be afraid to take action if you think someone might need help.”

Naomi said: “I have put the paper half in before when I have been worried about some of my other customers. Luckily I’ve never had to take action before.

Saxon Square Fayre

Reminder that Local producers and Dorset farmers have a fayre in Saxon Square in Saxon Square on the 4^th Friday of every month from now on.
                    

Watch out for Scams involving TV Licensing

A number of our readers may be over 75 so might be interested in reading the following submission from one of our residents.

“BEWARE! Don’t fall down the same trap as I did.

I was disappointed to only have one year’s benefit of the free television licence. Having received the warning of having to pay again, we were advised that we would receive a notification by post with instructions by the end of August.

Nothing came until I received two emails requesting payment by the following day. I do not procrastinate when paying bills, so I clicked the link in the email (not an attachment!)

I dutifully put in my credit card details and then stupidly put in as requested my bank sort code and account number. I then recalled that the TV Licence only took cheques or direct debit details.

I then PANICKED - What if it was a Scam?

Common sense told me to abort all connections and I phoned the bank to cancel all my debit and credit cards – if it was from TV Licensing, they would have to come back to me as a defaulter.

Fortunately, I was quick enough to stop any transactions, so the only down-side was that I have to set up new direct debits and wait for new cards.

‘Anon’ … as I am usually savvy in money matters on the internet.”

JSCHRA comment on this - DON’T click on links in emails or open any attachment unless you trust the sender. In this case the sender appeared to be sending from TV licensing but if you clicked on the sender’s email it came up with something completely different, it is well worth expanding the headers on emails if in doubt.

Another point, when this person took their driving licence to their bank for identification, they pointed out that it had expired so they thought they had been breaking the law!

In fact, because of Covid 19 if your licence expired before 31 December 2020 it is automatically extended for 11 months.

See https://www.gov.uk/renew-driving-licence-at-70

Invitation for Newsletter Submissions

If you work with a volunteer organisation or School and would like to add a couple of paragraphs to our monthly newsletter to let local residents know what you are doing then please get in touch.