We are working hard together with our Colleagues at HBBC to make Hinckley Town Centre as welcoming and safe as possible, and to encourage visitors to return. We are also producing a ’20 Reasons to come back into Hinckley’ Campaign which we are developing into something attractive and which we will be sending to our 14,000+ database - as well as replicating across the media. We will send you a copy with the next update, we are just awaiting confirmation on some of the bullet points (i.e. will the public toilets be open?).
A couple of issues/opportunities to bring to your attention please:
Legionnaires' Disease – Lockdown risks and re-opening safely
We appreciate that COVID19 is enough to worry about – but we have been asked by Environmental Health to ask you to take some precautions if your water tank has been full and unused since lockdown started. You may remember that some years ago the old Leisure Centre made the headlines because of this issue.
Please click on the below link...
NEW INFO - Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme
A new online service to allow employers to recover Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) payments will be launched on May 26th.
The scheme will allow small and medium-sized employers, with fewer than 250 employees, to apply to HMRC to recover the costs of paying coronavirus-related SSP.
Employers will receive repayments at the relevant rate of SSP that they have paid to current or former employees for eligible periods of sickness starting on or after 13 March 2020.
Employees do not have to provide a doctor’s fit note for their employer to make a claim under the scheme.
The repayment will cover up to two weeks of SSP and is payable if an employee is unable to work because they:
have coronavirus;
or are self-isolating and unable to work from home; or
are shielding because they’ve been advised that they’re at high risk of severe illness from coronavirus
- Get ready to claim. What you’ll need to do so:
- Your Government Gateway user ID
- Your employer PAYE scheme reference number
- A contact name and phone number of someone HMRC can contact if they have queries
- UK bank or building society details
- The total amount of coronavirus SSP you have paid to your employees for the claim period – this should not exceed the weekly rate that is set
- The number of employees you are claiming for
- The start date and end date of the claim period
You can claim for multiple pay periods and employees at the same time. The start date of your claim is the start date of the earliest pay period you’re claiming for. The end date of your claim is the end date of the most recent pay period you’re claiming.
Where an employer pays more than the current rate of SSP in sick pay, they will only be able to reclaim the SSP rate.
Employers can furlough their employees who have been advised to shield and are unable to work from home. Once furloughed, the employee should no longer receive SSP, where an employee has been notified to shield and has not been furloughed, the rebate will compensate up to 2 weeks of SSP from 16 April 2020
Stewards patrolling Hinckley Town centre to help visitors
Currently HBBC have two stewards patrolling Hinckley Town centre on Saturdays from 10.00 am - 4.00pm, but with many more businesses preparing to open, starting on Monday June 1st HBBC and Hinckley BID are sharing the cost of two stewards who will be patrolling the town centre each day. The BID Steward will be wearing a BID hi-viz, and the HBBC Steward will be wearing one of theirs but they will be working together. They will answer any questions from visitors and point people in the right direction, as well as keeping an eye open for any issues and reporting back accordingly.
Parking in the Town Centre
There has been some ‘unofficial’ relaxation on parking in the town centre but please be aware that the Leicestershire County Council CEOs are back on their beats and will give out penalties for any infringements.
Finally...
Those businesses who have advised that they have purchased the masks recommended by us in Update 20 report that they are indeed very comfortable.
Also, as an emergency fallback we have purchased a supply of anti-bacterial Hand Sanitising Gel in 500ml pump action plastic bottles – we will have to charge for these at the cost price - £10 each + VAT.
Any problems, we will do our best to help – just email me in the first instance at steve@hinckleybid.co.uk.