How Northampton is pulling together as coronavirus crisis bites

Moulton Parish Council has been busy delivering 3,000 letters to residents in the village and Moulton Leys over the past three days to share their help with pregnant women, the elderly and those self-isolating against coronavirus.

As a result, dozens of volunteers have now pledged their support to go shopping, walk dogs on behalf of other people and make a friendly phone call to the lonely.

They have signed up to a register, which can be called upon if someone is in need.

Moulton Parish Council's work around helping people to get through the coronavirus comes as they have been leading the way over the past four years with their health and wellbeing strategy.

They were one of the first villages to introduce a social prescribing service in the village to signpost people who don't need clinical NHS support to community groups instead, which include their befriending service, a COPD choir and a volunteer car scheme.

Jane Austin, executive officer at the parish council, said dozens of people have pledged their support to help the vulnerable and those self-isolating.

"It's overwhelming," she said. "It's very humbling.

"We are so grateful that people are so interested in helping. There's no shortage of help which is lovely - that's an important message to get out to the elderly."

Another uplifting story involves the landlady at Live and Let Live pub in Harpole helping to rally her community.

Miranda Richardson has launched a takeaway menu at her pub at a discounted rate for OAPS - and she and her staff are personally delivering food to the doorsteps of those who are self-isolating.

Her chefs have also changed their working hours, so they get to the pub at 5pm, to cook for those who want to eat earlier.

She said: "We are really overwhelmed.

"I always knew Harpole was a great village and I've always known the people are amazing and it needed an amazing pub and village pubs should be just that.

"They were called public houses for a reason because they are somewhere for everyone."

A group of volunteers is also putting leaflets through every door in the village to make sure all residents are being looked after, are receiving phone calls if they're lonely and have supplies.

Talks are also in place for a few GSCE students to use the pub projector for a virtual maths tutoring session - with a maths teacher whose school has closed for the foreseeable future.

Also, pulling Northampton together is Jennifer Hedges, of Community Acre, who is helping others manage their social media pages as some within the town has rapidly grown to more than 5,000 members.

She professionally offers help to signpost members to other relevant groups and helps admin to break down their members into geographic regions.

Her charity will next month be awarded National Lottery funding to the tune of £272,000 to set up 30 'good neighbour' schemes throughout Northamptonshire.

She is hoping that some of the social media groups which have been established over the past two weeks will be maintained after Covid-19.

"Although, I think a lot of these people that need help might not be on social media, if it encourages people to reach out to their neighbours and think about those people over the road who can't go out to get fresh produce that's great. People are helping each other and there's a real community feel at the moment."