Fife Council contact centres close to protect staff, amid coronavirus outbreak

Fife Council's contact centres are closed from today to protect staff, amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Many staff are self-isolating, with people being asked to only contact the local authority in an emergency.

But the delivery of important services is unaffected.

Fife Council Chief Executive Steve Grimmond said: "Staff are working round the clock to set up new processes; to support health services; to keep people informed and well; to stay linked in with the business and voluntary sectors.

"They are doing their best in extremely challenging circumstances. You can help by only contacting us in an emergency.

“Our contact centre can only accept emergency calls and we can only carry out emergency housing repairs.

“As everyone has been told to stay at home, all our customer service centres will be closed from Wednesday.

"Urgent appointments, such as registering a death, will happen over the phone.”

Mr Grimmond says bin collections are continuing and should be put put as normal.

He added: “We’re still collecting bins but we need to prioritise landfill and food/garden waste (blue and brown bins).

"Please put your bins out on your normal collection day by 6am.

“If your blue and brown bins are not collected leave them out and we’ll get to them.

"If your green and black bins are not collected on the usual day, bring them back in until next time.   

"All our recycling centres are closed at the moment but we’ll keep this under review."

Services like meals on wheels and support for people in care homes is still continuing to be provided, despite the contact centres closing.

Mr Grimmond continued: “People’s welfare is our top priority.

"Our health and social care teams are continuing to provide 24-hour care in group homes and care homes, home care and meals on wheels, as well as taking an active role in supporting the NHS response.”

Image from William Starkey released under Attribution-ShareALike 2.0 Generic