Cannock Chase Council is able to support retailers planning to re-open from 15 June with practical advice and information on how to manage customers queueing and entering the premises and protecting retail staff with appropriate hygiene measures.

The Council’s Environmental Health Teams have already been working with food premises providing a take away service and are on hand to support all non-essential shops across the District due to open soon.

A new grant scheme is now available to small businesses who may have missed out on previous government funding.

The new £1million cash pot is aimed at businesses with high property-related costs who have suffered a substantial drop in income as a result of Covid-19 but could not access existing grant schemes.

Environmental Health Officers from Cannock Chase Council have been visiting businesses in Cannock town centre to find out what measures have been put in place in response to COVID-19 restrictions and understand the challenges faced.

Lindsey Ellison, Senior Environmental Health Officer, Food and Safety Team said:

With the unemployment figure for Cannock Chase District rising to 4.8 per cent in April’s figures, Cannock Chase Council is signposting those unemployed to local organisations for information and advice to help them get back into work.

The last time the District’s unemployment rate was this high was January 2010.

The Council works closely with organisations supporting businesses and the local economy including local enterprise partnerships and local colleges, all of whom – including the Council – will do all they can to help the area recover from coronavirus.

Following the devastating impact coronavirus has had on Cannock Chase District, in common with other areas, the Council’s Cabinet has agreed a framework for recovery which will be key to the Council, local economy and the community all moving forward.

It has been agreed that `Supporting Recovery` will become the overarching priority for the remainder of its Corporate Plan covering 2018-23 and four key areas of focus have been identified: economic recovery, community recovery, the Council’s financial recovery and the Council’s organisational recovery.

The owner of the former Rugeley Power Station site, ENGIE, has submitted a revised planning application for the redevelopment of its site which includes the addition of either an All Through School (ATS) serving nursery pupils up to post 16 students or a stand alone primary school, along with new sports provision for both school and community use.

The revised outline planning application made to Cannock Chase Council and Lichfield District Council follows the granting in January 2020 of outline planning permission by both councils for the mixed-use redevelopment of the site.

Urgent work to tackle health and safety concerns on the closed multi-storey car park in Cannock Town Centre is set to begin on Monday and is due to last a couple of weeks subject to weather conditions.

During a recent safety inspection of the multi-storey car park, it became clear that some of the fixings of the cladding panels on the external façade were found to be coming loose. Remedial action is therefore required to protect the public who might be passing close by.

Cannock Chase Council officers have been working hard to process the emergency grants received from government to help eligible businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first payments were made on 6 April and it expects the vast majority of these grants to have been paid by the end of the month.

As of 15 April, the Council had made grant payments to businesses in the District worth £9 million, representing 40% of the anticipated number of eligible payments.

Cannock Chase Council has served prohibition notices on two pubs in Hednesford after people were found to be drinking in contravention of the regulations introduced by government at the end of last month.

Following a complaint received about people gathering in a pub, officers from Staffordshire Police entered the first premises on the afternoon of 28 March and discovered a number of people drinking within it. Following further enquiries, a similar notice was served on another nearby pub in the town.

As Cannock Chase Council prepares to make its first Business Support Grant payments after receiving funding from government, it is warning against a number of business scams that have been brought to its attention.

A district councillor was contacted by three businesses saying they had received phone calls purporting to be from the Council in which shop owners were asked for their bank details over the phone to enable them to have a grant payment paid direct in to their accounts.