A Sunday Reflection

It is an extraordinary time when families and friends cannot gather together over Sunday lunch, when our little church up on the hill cannot be open for Sunday worship, when our village pub cannot open for convivial drinks and conversation, and even our remarkable community shop has to take a short break and close its doors for 24 hours.

Yet, just as extraordinary, has been the response of the people in our village and its immediate neighbourhood, and today we say “thank you” to all those who have made sure vital things happen when so little can happen.

Especially we thank the village shop team – staff and volunteers – who have had to adapt over the past seven days to ever-changing circumstances, moving from near “business as normal” to a delivery-only service in such a short time.

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Latest Updates from Hambledon Parish Council, Saturday March 28th

• The Village Shop will not open on Sundays or Tuesdays until further notice, and no home deliveries will be made on these days.  Pre-ordered Sunday newspapers will be delivered tomorrow, but this will be reviewed. The shop is closed to the public, so DO NOT visit. Please see https://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=12566
• The Community Foundation For Surrey, which has been of considerable help to local initiatives in Hambledon over the years, has established a Coronavirus Response Fund, for which £300,000 was raised in its first week thanks largely to existing donors. As soon as the Foundation announced the fund was open to applications it was flooded with requests from community groups. It is now in need of additional voluntary donations to continue to give support in the current emergency. If you can help please do, and urge others to do so. This is the link to the Foundation’s online giving page: virginmoneygiving.com/fund/surreycoronavirusfund You can also give by BACS. All details on how to donate, and how to apply for funding, can be found by visiting www.cfsurrey.org.uk

Latest Updates From Hambledon Parish Council, Friday March 27th.

• The April Parish Magazine will be delivered across the village this weekend, thanks to several of the existing volunteers and others who have stepped in to fill the shoes of those who are self-isolating. The magazine contains all the necessary contact details for key organisations and coordinators helping the community through this difficult time of Coronavirus restrictions, plus all the regular features. As some subscribers previously collected from the village shop, and the list for home deliveries may not be complete, please bear with us. If you are a subscriber and do not receive your copy please contact Stewart Payne/Mary Burrows on 07831 393561 and 07909 9284251.
• The Village Shop is continuing with its daily deliveries and its method of operation is approved by Waverley Borough Council’s Environmental Health officers. Please see the update from the shop sent out yesterday for more details: https://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=12556  Having your groceries delivered to your home involves less risk of contamination than visiting a shop or supermarket. Food packaging is not known to present a specific risk but, as an added precaution, some health experts suggest leaving goods for 72 hours before opening, or spray and wipe plastic or glass containers etc carefully with bleach diluted in water as directed on the bottle. (Source:  BBC News website).
• The shop is well-stocked and staff are emailing regular customers with a list of what is available, including a PDF version that can be printed out for future reference. If you receive this email and know of someone else in the surrounding area who may not have seen it, but would find it useful, please pass it on.
• Perhaps surprisingly, the 503 Hambledon bus to Milford, Godalming and Guildford, is still running to its usual timetable, three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The service is operated by Stagecoach and its website states that social-distancing is in force on all buses. You cannot sit close to another passenger, you must take newspapers and magazines home with you and, if possible, use contactless payments. The same rules apply to the regular 71 bus service along the Petworth Road.
• Volunteers continue to come forward and this is greatly appreciated. For the time being enough help is available to deliver the shop supplies and for distribution of the parish magazine, but all names are logged and may be called upon in the future. Thank you. In the meantime you may wish to enroll in the national NHS volunteer scheme. goodsamapp.org/NHS.

Thanks, once again, goes to the team who provisioned today’s orders, around 30 orders were processed and delivered. The Shop continues to be well stocked (we’ll even have grapes tomorrow….). By using the shop delivery service you can avoid making unnecessary trips and help ease the burden on the food supply chain. The more that food demand is spread across a wide network the better. It avoids congestion in food outlets and buys some time for everyone involved to adjust their processes.

Advice from Waverley Environmental Heath

The shop has received excellent advice from Waverley Environmental Health on what process and procedures need to be put in place in the current environment. They believe the shop should be doing everything possible to stay open and serve the needs of the community. The shop is well placed to do this safely, given that it already has in place food hygiene procedures required of an establishment providing takeaway and on-site food consumption. The shop has been advised to continue to adhere strictly to good food hygiene practices even though on-site and takeaway food is no longer being provided. Additional practices have also been advised and are being followed.

A Contactless Delivery Service

In line with the advice we’ve received, the shop has implemented a contactless delivery service. Orders are taken by email (we will take calls, but remember that if you call us those in the shop have to use a shared phone), deliveries are made with no contact between the deliverer and the customer, payments are made by a card transaction over the phone (with outgoing calls we can make sure the person using the phone is using their own phone). The email address to use is [email protected].

If we stick to this process, we can maintain a contactless delivery service and also help reduce unnecessary trips. We do not want anyone to visit the shop unless they are requested to. You may be able to collect your own shopping but we would prefer that you didn’t. We are not currently struggling with deliveries. 

Volunteering

This being Hambledon, we have not been short of offers to help, they are much appreciated. Our strategy, at the moment, is to provision the shop delivery service with a small group of individuals and minimise the contact between that group and others. Each member of the group has a specific role which helps maintain social distance between the team members and avoid shared contact surfaces. Should one member of the group show symptoms of infection, it is likely all of the group would need to self-isolate. At that stage we will need a new team. So while we may not be contacting you now for help, we may need to in the future, for now we would prefer you stay safe and are therefore available when we need you.

Serving the Vulnerable

We have had some calls from those in vulnerable groups who have been unable to get deliveries from elsewhere. We are more than happy to help them out if they live within a reasonable distance. If you are aware of people in this situation, please put them in touch with the shop or get in touch on their behalf. The supermarkets are inevitably taking some time to provide on-line deliveries in a timely fashion. We can help fill the gap.

Latest updates from Hambledon Parish Council on Thursday March 26th.

• The Village Shop home delivery service is operating well, thanks to staff and volunteers, and yesterday more than 30 orders were delivered around Hambledon. Please remember the shop is not open to customers. Please order on-line if you can. Full details can be found here: https://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=12528
• Waverley Borough Council’s Environmental Health team has given a full endorsement to the way the shop is operating and the measures it is taking. It has encouraged the shop to continue in this way, stressing that it wants outlets like ours to remain open for business to stop people making journeys further afield and to spread the supply and distribution chain. Please check on this website for an update on this from the shop staff this evening, giving more details.
• We encourage you to subscribe to this website, if you have not already done so. This means you will receive an alert to let you know new information is available. To do this, simply enter your details on the “Subscribe to email news” boxes on the right hand column of the pages on this website, or in the Home menu and you will be kept right up to date in this ever-changing situation.
• Hambledon Village Nursery School staff and trustees have been working hard behind the scenes to assess the impact of its temporary closure and to have measures in place to best support staff and parents and to safeguard its financial future.  All schools were ordered to close, other than to provide facilities for the children of key workers.  Hambledon Nursery School parents have been contacted and none have requested key worker status, so the school will not need to offer this provision and it will remain closed.

To summarise, the current operation of the shop is as follows:

• The shop is operating a delivery service only, customers should not visit the shop
• The Post Office is closed until further notice

The procedure for ordering a delivery is as follows:

• If you have access to email, you should send your order to [email protected], if you do not have email access you should call the shop on 01428 682176.
• Orders for same day delivery should be made by mid-day. Orders received after mid-day will be fulfilled the following day.
• Please do not place orders for delivery more than 24 hours after the time of your order. We don’t have a system in place yet to deal with this. Orders placed before mid-day will be delivered that day, orders received after mid-day will be delivered the next day.
• Include a contact phone number and address with post code with your order.
• An itemised receipt will be included with your delivery.
• No payment should be made on delivery. The shop will call you for payment over the telephone using a debit/credit card. We will endeavour to make these calls for payment on the same day as the order is delivered.
• For now, we will try to deliver newspapers to those with a pre-existing standing order with the shop. This may not remain feasible longer term.

Many thanks to those involved in the shop delivery service today. Just over 30 deliveries were completed.

Some have raised concerns about whether they should use the shop delivery service if they don’t need to, in order to ensure those who really need it are adequately served. At the moment our response is that we encourage as many people as possible to use the service. The Shop continues to be well supplied, being able to place larger orders helps the shop to meet minimum order requirements and therefore ensure those supplies continue. We will make sure that those who are most reliant on the delivery service are prioritised.

Update from Hambledon Parish Council on Wednesday March 25th.

• Once again, the focus is on the community-run village shop and post office, which is doing its best to cater for villagers in very challenging circumstances. From today, the shop will only deliver to customers who place their orders online, or by phone if they do not have an email account. No customers can visit the shop, even to place an order or to collect from outside. Orders will then by made up inside the shop and handed to volunteers to deliver to homes across the village. For more details please see https://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=12463
• This new measure requires some explanation. The shop relies on a small number of part-time paid staff and volunteers, some of whom have specific responsibilities as shop management committee members. Many people in Hambledon, as elsewhere, are self-isolating. This will be for a variety of reasons; age, at risk through underlying health issues and – increasingly – because they or someone they are close to has become unwell and they feel they must self-isolate. The pool of experienced people available to manage the shop is diminishing. It is true to say that as much hard work goes on behind the scenes as that that is evident to customers. This not only involves managing stock and placing orders in very difficult circumstances, but enforcing stringent hygiene procedures and keeping up to date with ever-changing Government guidelines. The shop has also enforced strict social-distancing. Last night, with more staff and volunteers deciding to isolate, the shop committee felt it had no choice but to close all services, including the post office counter, at the shop premises and move to a delivery-only service. Its commitment is to maintain supplies to villagers, but even this cannot be guaranteed as time progresses.
• All Parish Council contacts and information relating to the current Coronavirus/COVID-19 situation, is now available on this website. Please click on the new link on the top right of the opening page entitled Coronavirus Essential Village Information.
• One of the few joys in the current situation has been the lovely, sunny weather, which is set to last for a few more days. Many people required to stay at home are taking pleasure at being out in their gardens. Please be considerate and DO NOT light bonfires on days such as these, and wait for a dull day and a time when people will not be outside.
• St Peter’s Church is, of course, closed but worship continues with services streamed on-line. The church has updated its page on this website, listed in the menu under “Organisations”, so please look there for more information.
• The Merry Harriers is also closed but the village shop would like to place on record its gratitude to Jake Andreou, manager, and Nick Ash, sous chef, both relative newcomers to the village, who have been volunteering at the village shop. The pub has also given all its fresh food to the shop to ensure it does not go to waste. All this is greatly appreciated, and very much in the spirit of Hambledon. 

With immediate effect the Shop will be providing a delivery service only. The Post Office will be closed until further notice.

Only staff and volunteers provisioning the delivery service should visit the shop.

Orders for delivery should be sent to [email protected], only if entirely necessary, orders can be called through on 01428 682176. Orders for same day delivery must be made by 11am. 

We have a number of orders already placed, they will be delivered, you should not try to collect.

Payments for orders will be by card transaction over the telephone after the order has been placed and delivered.

We will be delivering newspapers to those that have a pre-existing standing order with the shop.

With immediate effect the shop will be moving to a delivery/collection service only. No customers will be allowed inside the shop except for essential Post Office transactions. Customers can shop from the front door of the shop by giving their requests to the staff/volunteers in attendance

We strongly urge you to place orders for collection or delivery by email to [email protected]. By using email you keep the shop phone line free and save us considerable time. If you are unable to place an order by email call us on 01428 682176. Orders for delivery or collection on the same day should be placed by 11am.

There will be no takeaway food or hot drinks.

Thank you for your understanding and please stay safe.

One of our volunteers tested positive for Coronavirus on Friday 19^th March.

Their last shift was on Thursday 12th March from 11:00-13:00. We believe that they may have been in the shop since, but we cannot confirm this.

We looked at the current government guidance and, on the basis of that, have decided to keep the shop open.

We send our love and support to our dear friend and their family.

If you’ve visited the shop in the last few days, you will know that we are encouraging social distancing by allowing only three customers in the shop at a time and we are asking everyone to de-sanitise their hands before entering the shop. We have a group of volunteers who are helping to apply these procedures at the entrance to the shop. These volunteers are also able to organise for your shopping to be done for you if, for any reason, you would prefer not to enter the shop. We ask that, if at all possible, payments at the shop are made by card, not cash.

The shop is currently well stocked and open its usual hours. Unfortunately we will not be able to operate the Post Office on Monday afternoons for the foreseeable future, other than that the Post Office is operating as normal.

The Marry Harriers has prepared a special take-away menu for people who are self-isolating. This can be paid for over the phone and delivery will be free of charge to the doorstep, carried out by a team of volunteers

The service is also available for those who are not self-isolating but orders will need to be collected from the pub doorway. 

In addition the pub is offering a free hot drink and 50 per cent off a pub food bill for all emergency staff and teachers.

Thank you to Jake, David and all the staff at the Merry Harriers.