COVID Vaccination Scam

/in News /by Andrew Martin

Cambridgeshire Police News

Sadly, scammers continue to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to commit fraud on unsuspecting victims.

We’ve had reports of fraudsters sending fake text messages, which claim you are entitled to a dose of the newly-approved vaccine.

The bogus message states that you are entitled to a vaccine and to receive more information you should click on the link.

Unfortunately, these texts are fake. Once you click on the link, you are taken to a webpage, which is branded to look like a genuine NHS page, which requests to see ‘proof of ownership of address’ in the form of your bank account, sort code and a full bank card number.

Do not give your bank or card details to make payment for a vaccine or to prove your residential address.

Coronavirus vaccines are free and the NHS will never ask for any money or your bank details.

Further information about scams is available here.

Nigel Sutton
Cyber Protect Officer
Cambridgeshire Police

Twelve Days of Christmas

/in News /by Andrew Martin

Have you found all the “Twelve Days of Christmas” dotted around the village? The twelve days starts on 25th December with a “Partridge in a Pear Tree” and finishes on 5th January with “Twelve Drummers Drumming”. Keep looking if you haven’t spotted them all.

 

Happy New Year from all Barton Parish Councillors.

 

Flood on High Street

/in News, Urgent /by Andrew Martin

Parish News

As many are probably aware, the end of the High Street is flooded. This has been reported to Cambridgeshire County Council Highways for emergency action. Please take care on this stretch of road.

Clerk Barton Parish Council

 

 

Tier 4 Update

/in News, Urgent /by Andrew Martin

Dear members, volunteer coordinators and parish councillors

The Government has announced that Cambridgeshire is moving into Tier 4 restrictions from 12.01am on Saturday 26 December.

I had hoped that the previous update would be the last until the New Year but we wanted to share with you all what this announcement will mean.

Firstly, the change does not affect Christmas Day. People can still choose to mix with two other households. However, as we have stressed before, the fact that people are allowed to do that does not mean you should. Less mixing and shorter celebrations will minimise the risk to loved ones and help ensure Coronavirus is not passed on. Please do share our Facebook posts within your communities to help encourage people to spend their Christmas Day as safely as possible:

 

You can view the full guidance on Christmas bubbles on the Government’s website.

What does Tier 4 mean for community groups and local support?

People on the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable list who cannot work from home are not allowed to go to work under Tier 4 restrictions. Clearly this also means they should not go to the shops for food or medication either. This group of people have been provided with lots of information since the beginning of the pandemic and asked to register on the Government’s website for updates. We have also provided additional information over recent months to ensure they know how to contact key organisations such as the County Council, ourselves and to remind them that local Covid community groups can also help them. You can check or pass on the latest Government guidance for Clinically Extremely Vulnerable people in Tier 4 on the Government’s website.

As time has passed, most people who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable have become very self-sufficient in dealing with the restrictions so we are not expecting a big increase in requests for support.

The online supermarket delivery priority for people who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable remains in place to ensure they can receive food when needed. However, we wanted to remind you that we also have access to a separate online priority scheme for Tesco and Iceland. The scheme is aimed at people who cannot go shopping due to Covid-19. There is more information on our website. Please ask anyone this may help to contact us so we can arrange this.

Summary of Tier 4 rules

  • Don’t invite anyone into your home for social reasons, who you don’t normally live with or who isn’t in your existing support bubble.
  • Only leave home for essential reasons (for food/medicine/essential care or personal safety) and when you are out, remember to keep 2 meters away from anyone you don’t live with, wear a mask, wash your hands, and stay in well ventilated, uncrowded places.
  • You can go out to exercise alone, with people you live with, or with one other person you don’t live with providing this is in a public place like a park.
  • Everyone must work from home unless they are unable to do so, and if it is essential to work outside the home take maximum precautions – particularly travelling to or from work (avoid car sharing and busy public transport, wear a mask, regular hand washing or sanitising, staying in well ventilated places, and cleaning surfaces).
  • Don’t travel outside Tier 4 unless for essential work or education or a legally permitted reason – and reduce the journeys you take inside the area. People from Tiers 1 – 3 should not travel to Tier 4 areas, except for essential purposes such as work, education or a legally permitted reason.

Other impacts of the Tier 4 rules are as follows:

  • All non-essential shops will close. Click and collect is allowed.
  • All hospitality will be closed – except for take away, drive through or food delivery.
  • Businesses offering personal care, hairdressers, barbers, beauty salons, gyms etc. will all close.
  • No weddings except in exceptional circumstances, funerals with only a maximum of 30 people.
  • Places of worship open for private prayer or communal worship – but don’t mix with anyone not in your household.
  • Visits to care homes can take place if there are arrangements such as substantial screens, visiting pods, or behind windows.
  • Close-contact indoor care home visits supported by rapid testing, which are allowed in some care homes in Tiers 1-3, will not be allowed in Tier 4.
  • Entertainment venues are closed. Some outdoor sports facilities are allowed with Covid secure measures

The Government’s website has the full guidance for Tier 4.

Finally, I know the latest announcement will mean we are all thinking what else we can do to help. We still have a way to go in the pandemic and your support is more vital than ever. To ensure help is there when it is needed I would encourage you to ensure you also have break.

I wish you and your family a safe Christmas.

 

Bill Handley

Lead Cabinet Member for Community Resilience, Health & Wellbeing

South Cambridgeshire District Council

Merry Christmas

/in News /by Andrew Martin

Parish Council

On behalf of Barton Parish Councillors, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Sarah Pitchford (Chairman)

COVID-19 Update

/in News /by Andrew Martin

South Cambs District Council News

Covid-19 update – 18 December 2020

Dear members, volunteer coordinators and parish councillors

This is my last update this side of Christmas. Next week the Sustainable Communities and Wellbeing Team will send out a special Winter Warmers – Isolation and Loneliness Newsletter so keep an eye on your inbox.

I would like to once again thank you all for the of the extraordinary work you have done during 2020 to support your communities. I wish you a lovely, jolly (careful !) Christmas.

Important information on Christmas bubbles

You will be aware that there has been discussion at the highest government levels about what we are allowed to do at Christmas. The decision has been taken to keep government advice unchanged and the official government guidance about Christmas ‘bubbles’ is given below. We should all consider very carefully how we behave over Christmas, however just because it is OK to mix with other households in a bubble, it doesn’t mean that we should. We need to still try to keep our rates of infection as low as we can possible to protect ourselves, our loved ones and the NHS.

The government advises that a Christmas bubble will allow you to spend time with other people indoors, in your garden, attend places of worship or at public outdoor places. To have a #CovidSafeChristmas please take note of the specifics about Christmas bubbles.

This bubble should only consist of three separate households in total. Your own household counts as one of the households and your Christmas bubble must consist of the same 3 households for the whole 5-day period.

There are 3 main rules:

  • you cannot change your Christmas bubble – it is set for the whole 5 days
  • your Christmas bubble should not include people from more than three households
  • you can only be in one Christmas bubble

If you do form a Christmas bubble, you should not meet socially with other friends or family in your home or garden.

Although you can form a Christmas bubble, you are advised to think carefully to ensure you minimise the risk to vulnerable people and help minimise the spread of the virus. The Government is reminding people about this now so please help us encourage people to be cautious.

The Government’s website has further information on support, childcare, Christmas bubbles and the local tier restrictions.

Support Bubble  Making a Support Bubble

Childcare Bubble Making a Childcare Bubble

Christmas Bubble Making a Christmas Bubble

Local Tier Restrictions – What You Need to Know

Self-isolation changes

Also be aware that there has been a change to the self-isolation period, from 14 to 10 days. This applied across the UK from 00.01am on Monday 14 December. This reduced period of self-isolation applies for both the confirmed contacts of those who have tested positive, and people who return from countries which are not on the travel corridor list. This will apply to all those who are currently self-isolating including those who commenced self-isolation before Monday. People who test positive should continue to self-isolate for 10 days from onset of symptoms or 10 days from point of taking a positive test if asymptomatic.

Winter support grants

A wide package of support is being made available in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough thanks to a £2.2 million grant from Government. The money must be spent on food, fuel and essential supplies. The criteria mean that most of the funding is aimed at households with children living there.

All families with children who receive a free school meal will receive a voucher to help cover additional food costs during the Christmas and February half term school holidays. Support has also been offered to families that schools have identified as potentially needing extra help.

On 6 January parishes and community groups will be able to bid for up to £500 for local schemes that will support people with food, fuel and essential supplies. More information will be added to the CCVS (Cambridge Council for Voluntary Service) website who are administering this for us.

A further support grant with Cambridge Online will help digitally excluded children across South Cambridgeshire get online to learn and socialise this winter. This will be done by providing a device on which to learn and access to the internet, where necessary, via a data package. To find out more, email ku.gro.enilnoegdirbmac@pleh or call the helpline on 01223 300407. You can refer people directly to Cambridge Online or get in touch with ku.vog.sbmacs@seitinummoc.ytud. Please make sure you reference South Cambs Winter Support Grant when you get in touch with Cambridge Online.

New NHS Test and Trace plan to support return to more normal way of life

As part of the Government’s coronavirus Winter Plan, NHS Test and Trace has set out a new business plan for the next phase of the service. The plan sets out the approach to disrupt and prevent coronavirus transmission, protect people’s health and enable people to return towards a more normal way of life.

Mental health training

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are anticipating increases in the numbers of people suffering poor mental health as a result of loneliness, isolation and economic impacts such as job loss, uncertainty for the future, debt etc.

Following the excellent webinar last week, to extend knowledge and build on the online mental health tutorial being provided by Mind CPSL, we are offering additional workshops. The workshops are limited to a maximum of 16 people per session but if these sessions fill up, Mind will release further dates and times. Please register your interest by following the links below. If you cannot attend these dates, still follow the links as there are email contact details for Mind listed. You can contact them to register your interest in a future date.

11 January 1pm-2pm:

https://www.cpslmind.org.uk/event/cpsl-mind-scdc-community-workshops-session-2/

12 January 7pm-8pm:

https://www.cpslmind.org.uk/event/cpsl-mind-scdc-community-workshops-session-2-2/

Who to contact over the festive period

If you need any support over the Christmas period, please don’t hesitate to contact ku.vog.sbmacs@seitinummoc.ytud in the usual way as there will be someone checking the inbox on all the normal working days. Officers will be taking a break on the weekends and public bank holidays. This is the same for the County Council’s Covid-19 hub. Their details are below:

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Coordination Hub
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/coronavirus or call 0345 045 5219.

Other contacts for out of hours emergencies:

Cambridgeshire County Council Social Care out of hours/duty team or safeguarding emergencies: 01733 234724

Police non-emergency situations – call 101 for non-emergency enquiries. Using this number, you can report an incident or get help.

In an emergency call the police on 999

Emergency and cannot speak

If you are in a hostile environment or situation and you can’t talk, you can the police on 999 and press 55 to inform them that you are unable to speak but that you need help.

SCDC Councillor and Officer support

In an emergency you can also contact your local district councillor. Councillors will be able to reach district officers in an emergency throughout the festive break

Age UK

Support is also available through the Christmas break from Age UK this year, including on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. In the attached document you can see a useful list of contacts to call, should you need to find some support for residents over the festive period.

Children/ baby goods donations

We have had a number of enquiries regarding where people can donate Children/baby goods and also how to access blankets and clothing. Many local organisations do not have capacity to store these items, and demand is not consistent, making it logistically difficult. We know that, as community groups, you have successfully rallied to manage these needs in your communities however, I would like to highlight a network that might be helpful. Life is a gift is a set of Gift Economy groups, run through Facebook, extending through Cambridgeshire & surrounding areas. If people have a need, or possibly items surplus to requirements, here is an avenue to locally distribute them. It requires users to undertake Covid-safe doorstep drop offs/ collections.

Christmas food delivery

In the uncertainty surrounding Christmas, we were very concerned that some elderly and vulnerable residents may not get a Christmas meal, whether due to not being able to see family, attend a usual community event or because it simply wasn’t affordable. We were very keen to make sure these people got a Christmas meal and I am delighted to report that we will be delivering 900 meals to such residents across 41 South Cambs villages. Meal ingredients are being sourced from local businesses, who have been impacted by Covid restrictions and two of the three food suppliers are South Cambridgeshire based companies. The Christmas meals are being prepared by the 3C church group, who have employed additional chefs who would otherwise have been out of work. On 23 December three locally hired freezer vans will be driven by six SCDC employees, who have volunteered to make the deliveries to each of the central hubs across the villages. Local volunteers will then deliver the meals to residents. This is such a wonderful initiative and truly shows us Christmas spirit is alive and well! Many thanks to all involved.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy Christmas,

Bill Handley

Lead Cabinet Member for Community Resilience, Health & Wellbeing

South Cambridgeshire District Council

CamBedRailRoad and East West Rail

/in News /by Andrew Martin

Parish Council News

CamBedRailRoad (CBRR) is a community based, voluntary, think tank led by two distinguished transport infrastructure Civil Engineers, with extensive experience in the UK and the Far East, and our Chairman, County Councillor Sebastian Kindersley. Barton Parish Council invited Sebastian to present their vision for EWR to the Councillors and Traffic, Travel and Transport working group. (Attached is a pdf of the presentation.)

CBRR also have set up a petition:

The petition reads:

We, the undersigned, request that the Department for Transport ensures that the proposal for a Northern route for the Central Section of the East West Rail, such as that proposed by CamBedRailRoad with widespread support amongst residents of South Cambridgeshire, is fairly evaluated at the same time and to the same degree as alternative routes proposed by East West Rail Company.

The link to the petition is:

https://www.change.org/p/secretary-of-state-for-transport-northern-rail-route-should-be-evaluated-equally-alongside-ewr-s-current-proposals-d7bd2f1f-7675-41de-b072-161074cfdeef

CBRR’s website (http://www.cambedrailroad.org/

Barton Parish Council continue to engage with all parties including our local MP Anthony Browne, County and District Councillors and, most importantly, EWR directly.

EWR still plan to present route options early 2021, so any other option you may read about or see is speculative and not from an official source. Have a look at EWR community hub and the environmental maps and overlays.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Clerk.

 

Cyber Security Advice

/in News /by Andrew Martin

Neighbourhood Watch News

Due to coronavirus, more people will be doing their festive shopping online this year.

This means more opportunities for hackers to carry out cyber attacks. They often do this by targeting people and businesses using:

* email and website scams
* malware – software that can damage your device or let a hacker in
* If hackers get into your device or accounts, they could access your money, your personal information, or information about your business.

You can improve your cyber security by taking six actions:

1 – Use a strong and separate password for your email

If a hacker gets into your email, they could:

* reset your other account passwords
* access information you have saved about yourself or your business
* Your email password should be strong and different to all your other passwords. This will make it harder to crack or guess.

2 – Create strong passwords using 3 random words

When you use different passwords for your important accounts, it can be hard to remember them all.

A good way to create strong, memorable passwords is by using 3 random words.

Do not use words that can be guessed (like your pet’s name). You can include numbers and symbols if you need to. For example, “RedPantsTree4!”

3 – Save your passwords in your browser

Saving your password in your browser means letting your web browser (such as Chrome, Safari or Edge) remember your password for you.

This can help:
* make sure you do not lose or forget your passwords
* protect you against some cyber crime, such as fake websites

It is safer than using weak passwords, or using the same password in more than one place.

4 – Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)

Two-factor authentication (2FA) helps to stop hackers from getting into your accounts, even if they have your password.

5 – Update your devices

Out-of-date software, apps, and operating systems contain weaknesses. This makes them easier to hack.

Companies fix the weaknesses by releasing updates. When you update your devices and software, this helps to keep hackers out.

6 – Back up your data

Backing up means creating a copy of your information and saving it to another device or to cloud storage (online).

Backing up regularly means you will always have a recent version of your information saved. This will help you recover quicker if your data is lost or stolen.

For more information, and step-by-step instructions, please visit cyberaware.gov.uk

Catalytic Converter Thefts

/in News /by Andrew Martin

Neighbourhood Alert

Catalytic Converter Thefts

Please be aware there have been a number of catalytic converter thefts across South Cambridgeshire in recent months. Among the brands targeted Toyota, and Honda are high on the list along with four by four vehicles and Sprinter vans. Thieves are selecting models that have the most high value metals within the converter.

Thieves use high powered cutting tools and will jack up the car to cut out converters so they can access the precious metals inside.
Cambridgeshire police are urging residents to take precautions as your vehicle may be targeted.

There are specialist catalytic converter marking kits available so you can mark your converter with a unique code, so it’s harder for thieves to sell on.
Approach your dealership for advice about fitting a Catloc or other protective device, some garages are offering specialist welding and will fit metal plates to help protect the vulnerable areas.
Try to park with your exhaust close to a fence, wall or kerb to reduce the risk of theft.
Consider installing a 24hr dash-cam.
Purchase a driveway alarm
Park in a well lit area, ideally covered by CCTV.

For more advice please follow this link:

Or check our website: www.cambs.police.uk

Message Sent By
Rachel Carr (Police, Community Safety Officer, South Cambridgeshire)

Christmas COVID Update

/in News /by Andrew Martin

Parish Council News

Dear Residents,

This is the latest information from South Cambridgeshire District Council.

From one minute after midnight on Wednesday 2nd December, we enter Tier 2 (High Alert). This is for areas with a higher or rapidly rising level of infection, where some additional restrictions need to be in place. The Tier 2 restrictions are as follows:

  • You must not socialise with anyone you do not live with or who is not in your support bubble in any indoor setting, whether at home or in a public place
  • You must not socialise in a group of more than 6 people outside, including a garden or public space – this is the ‘rule of 6’
  • Places of worship remain open but you must not socialise with people from outside of your household or support bubble while you are indoors there.
  • Pubs and bars must close, unless operating as restaurants. Hospitality venues can only serve alcohol with substantial meals. They must provide table service only in venues which sell alcohol, close between 11pm and 5am and stop taking orders after 10pm.
  • Visit bartonvillage.org for more information.

             Making a Christmas bubble with friends and family between 23rd and 27th December

  • you can form an exclusive ‘Christmas bubble’ composed of people from no more than three households
  • you can only be in one Christmas bubble
  • you cannot change your Christmas bubble
  • you can travel between tiers and UK nations for the purposes of meeting your Christmas bubble
  • you can only meet your Christmas bubble in private homes or in your garden, places of worship, or public outdoor spaces
  • you can continue to meet people who are not in your Christmas bubble outside your home according to the rules in the tier where you are staying
  • you cannot meet someone in a private dwelling who is not part of your household or Christmas bubble

You should travel to meet those in your Christmas bubble and return home between the 23rd  and 27th  December. Anyone travelling to or from Northern Ireland may travel on the 22nd and 28th  December.

A fixed bubble is a sensible and proportionate way to balance the desire to spend time with others over the Christmas period, while limiting the risk of spreading infection. However, the more people you see, the more likely it is that you will catch or spread coronavirus (COVID-19). You can spread coronavirus to others even if you and the people you meet have no symptoms. You and the other people in your Christmas bubble need to consider these risks carefully before agreeing to form a bubble.  Remember, hands, face, space.