Leave No One Behind

The Town Mayor has launched a ‘Leave No One Behind’ campaign in Haywards Heath, working with Haywards Heath Covid-19 Mutual Aid, to help the community in these unprecedented times

Cllr Alastair McPherson, Town Mayor of Haywards Heath comments:

“We live in unprecedented times.

On Monday evening I and my fellow Councillors resolved at a Meeting of the Full Council to close the Town Hall building for the foreseeable future, based on government guidance about limiting gatherings of people.

At this meeting we also agreed upon a plan to support our older and more vulnerable residents in our Town. This is a difficult and scary time for many residents of our Town and we have agreed to do all we can to help the community in this extraordinary time.

It’s now Thursday and we are launching our community network response to support this most important section of our community and ‘Leave No One Behind’ as they potentially self-isolate for the next few weeks.

It is hoped that the vast majority of our residents will experience few issues, except perhaps a change in their day to day activities, but we must be proactive and protect anyone who is older and more vulnerable in our society. It is all of our responsibility to ‘Leave No One Behind’, so I’m here to explain what Hayward Heath Town Council is rolling out for our community and Town over the next few days.

This is by no means a perfect solution at this stage but please engage if you can and if you are able to…

Over the past 36 hours we have formulated a plan for the Town. Haywards Heath is divided into 5 Wards. Your Councillor’s names, numbers and e-mail address can be found on the HHTC website now and they will be coordinating the strategy to ‘Leave No One Behind’.

Working with community groups within the Town and Wards, we will be asking healthy and able residents to help support our more vulnerable residents. We will be putting out a call for volunteers within the Wards to deliver information cards to all addresses. Based on a response to these cards we will then be able to map out, street by street, where are our more vulnerable residents are and ensure they have the appropriate support over the next few weeks.

For those on social media and the internet we will also be active on Facebook, Skype platforms and the HHTC Website.

We will be building on the community network we are fortunately to already have in Haywards Heath.

I would urge everyone to get involved if they can or are able to. Please help out by completing this form and with distribution in the first instance – there will be other activities as this intervention evolves – so as community we can start to protect those that most need our support into the future.

We are setting up an emergency number and emergency email address to coordinate this endeavor. Please only use this if you’re in real hardship.

The HH Town Council Emergency number is 01444 455694 (9am – 5pm) 07384 289668 and email is town.clerk@haywardsheath.gov.uk