TOWN COUNCIL AND ATHERSTONE PARTNERSHIP CREATE NEW SUPPORT TEAM WITH GOAL OF 'MISSING NO ONE' IN BATTLE AGAINST CORONAVIRUS

ATHERSTONE has launched a town-wide mission to ensure "no one is missed" among its vulnerable and needy population isolated by the knock-on effects of deadly coronavirus.

The town council today sent out an urgent plea for townsfolk to step forward and join its newly-created community support team.

The project, being run in conjunction with Atherstone Partnership, has already seen the start of a communications sweep of the whole town through door-to-door leafleting.

Volunteers who live in Atherstone can now sign up to drop cards through letterboxes offering basic help, or signposting residents to more specialised support if required.

And Atherstone Community Support Team will be masterminding a service to the those most in need – in the form of shopping, collecting prescriptions, posting letters, arranging dog walking or just offering the basic comfort of a voice at the end of a telephone.

Atherstone Town Council chairman David Wright explained that while the Government had identified 1.5 million vulnerable people going into isolation for 12 weeks and both Warwickshire County Council and North Warwickshire Borough Council had contact helplines, at local level there are "still people who could be slipping through the net".

Yesterday, Atherstone's twin civic leader called on the district's "very vulnerable" residents to identify themselves so they can be helped through the coronavirus crisis

Cllr Wright, who is also borough council leader, told Nub News: "No one must be left without support.

"It is vital that this support team ensures we do not miss anyone in difficult circumstances at this time."

He said the first job was to "target everyone within Atherstone with a leaflet to explain what we are trying to achieve."

To join the scheme volunteers should contact the town council on 07928 974576 or 07541 946062 or email [email protected] or call with their own name address and contact number. Checks maybe requested for safeguarding purposes.

Volunteers will then be issued with a pack to enable them to help support those in need of assistance.

Civic-led food parcels through the borough and county authorities are now being delivered on a weekly basis in addition to the 100 meals going out from an operation being orchestrated by Atherstone Coffee Shop owner Angie Spencer on Mondays and Fridays from St Nicholas Church hall, Baddesley Ensor.