The Leader of City of Wolverhampton Council will use the opportunity at the authority’s first Full Council meeting in six months to thank residents and employees for going above and beyond in helping our city stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
Councillor Ian Brookfield said “Whilst remembering that the fight against COVID 19 continues and that we all must remain vigilant, it is right and proper that we take this opportunity at our first Full Council meeting since going into lockdown, to say thank you on behalf of the council to all its workers and the residents of the city for their help and hard work in keeping Wolverhampton as safe as it could be during these challenging times.”
“We know that Council staff including our frontline and key workers, health and social care staff, refuse workers and council officers have willingly taken on new roles with eagerness and without a word of complaint to help out in the city, from delivering food parcels, manning telephone helplines to caring for the homeless.
Furthermore, thousands of our residents have helped their neighbours, their families and local food banks and other charitable causes get through what was hopefully the worst of this terrible epidemic”.
The Council has been decisive and pioneering in the fight against COVID 19 from the outset of the lockdown. Within just a few days of the Government announcing the lockdown, it became one of the first places in the country to start delivering parcels of free essential food supplies to vulnerable and isolated residents.
It took swift action to redeploy hundreds of staff away from their normal roles and converted WV Active Aldersley leisure centre into a distribution hub. Its food parcel operation was the biggest in the Black Country and one of the biggest in the UK, fully operational within a week of lockdown. There have been 60,882 deliveries of over 1.28 million meals in 4.5 months to vulnerable residents since the start of the coronavirus lockdown, with councillors and officers helping out.
Similarly, the Council’s Business Support helpline has ensured that local business owners get the advice and support needed and by the end of August nearly 4,000 business grants had been paid, worth over £44. The City’s rough sleepers have also been sheltered in temporary hotel accommodation at the start of the pandemic to protect them from the virus and then successfully moved onto secure, long-term accommodation.
Other services such as the council’s Benefits and COVID-19 helpline have proved invaluable in providing practical help and advice to all those suffering financial hardship as a result of the virus.