And just like that the nights are drawing in, the seasons change and our thoughts turn to seasonal festivities and of course seasonal flu! Keeping in smaller groups of 6, booking your annual flu vaccine along with handwashing, wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing will help to prevent the spread.  In addition, anyone with a high fever, a continuous cough, or a loss of taste or smell should get tested to support the test and trace process.

Test and Trace is still experiencing heavy demand and the advice is to keep trying, as slots are released several times a day. The tests are only accurate if done within the first 5 days of the symptoms, and a QR code must be obtained before attending the centre. A new app will be launched next week to make the process simpler and to enable scanning of details, rather than providing written information.

As we welcome new and returning students to the district, we are continuing to support our local universities informing students of their responsibilities to themselves, each other and to their local neighbours. Further information can be found on Warwick University’s website. In addition, the council has, together with Warwick University, jointly employed a student officer who will support student welfare and their safe integration into the local community, as well as being a first point of contact for both students and residents. ­

Some very welcome news ahead of the winter months; we will be able to continue with the support for rough sleepers, which was successful during the pandemic in providing accommodation for those living on the streets. The council will receive a grant of over £300k from the Government to help provide more vulnerable people and rough sleepers with settled and permanent accommodation and to ensure that as few as possible return to the streets.

Celebrating our local heritage this weekend, our annual Heritage Open Days festival draws to a close and you can take a look at this video produced by the Leamington Society for this year’s event, which walks you through Leamington Spa’s Jephson Gardens and its splendid trees. Or you can take a look at Hill Close Gardens, the hidden gem in Warwick, in this short video, produced by the Hill Close Gardens Trust.

As part of the Kenilworth Arts Festival this year, Art in the Park takes place tomorrow in Kenilworth from 10am to 4pm, which showcases the work of artists from in and around Kenilworth.  Why not pop along and enjoy this socially distanced event?

Warwick Racecourse is part of a nationwide pilot and will be amongst the first in the country to allow spectators to its meeting this Monday 21 September 474 members, hospitality bookers and racehorse owners have been invited to attend.

In readiness for visitors and supporters of Lawn and Para Bowls being hosted at Victoria Park as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, there are exciting plans for improvements to the Leamington Spa train station forecourt and underpass, being made possible by a combination of funding from Warwick District Council and the Government’s Local Growth Fund through Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership. Other smaller amounts of funding have been secured from the Department for Transport and a heritage fund. You can to comment on the provisional designs.  

The Council’s discretionary grant scheme finishes next week and will have allocated over £1.7 million to 600 businesses across the district, including sole traders and the self-employed not eligible for other central government schemes. We know that this has provided valuable support to those businesses during the pandemic and we have received some very positive feedback:

“…it sets my mind at ease knowing I have something to fall back on.”

“this will make such a huge difference!” 

We hope you will continue to visit and enjoy our vibrant town centre businesses and markets to support their recovery, confident in the safety measures they have invested in, particularly as we now start to think ahead towards the festive season. But what of our Christmas festivities this year?

We will be celebrating and illuminating our town centres with our Christmas lights, but we will not be able to hold our traditional light switch-on events. Instead we will be leading a virtual light switch on, encouraging residents to participate by switching on their own festive lights at home at the same time as we switch on the town centre lights. This finely tuned activity, will give us something entertaining to look forward to!

Keep smiling and stay safe.

Andrew Day                                                
Leader, Warwick District Council

Chris Elliott
Chief Executive, Warwick District Council