Avoid the riverfront say Police and Councils

/in , /by
Image above: Hammersmith riverfront; photograph Hammersmith & Fulham Council The Met Police joined Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow councils in urging local residents to avoid the busy riverfront to help stop the spread of Covid-19. The stretch of riverfront running from Chiswick Mall to Hammersmith Mall and down to Bishop’s Park in Fulham is extremely busy, they say, es

Train services to be reduced to 72% of pre-pandemic levels

/in , /by
Above: Photograph by Marianne Mahaffey  Train services across the country, including those which service Chiswick, will be reduced by up to 72% of pre-pandemic levels. The changes will come in place gradually over the next few weeks and passengers will be asked to check before they travel whether their regular service is running. The rail industry argues that the timetable cuts

Chiswick Head Teacher “devastated” that exams have been cancelled

/in , /by
Image above: Laura Ellener, Head Teacher of Chiswick School (library picture not taken during the pandemic) Head teacher of Chiswick School Laura Ellener told the Chiswick Area Forum on Tuesday 12 January she was "devastated" that GCSE and A Level exams were not going ahead this year. She said her Year 11 and Year 13 groups were still working very hard but she felt very bad for the

Hear first hand from Kelly O’Neill about how Covid is affecting LB Hounslow

/in , /by
  Images above: Kelly O'Neill; Laura Ellener; Xanthe Arvanitakis LB Hounslow's Director of Public Health, Kelly O'Neill, will be speaking at the Chiswick Area Forum on Tuesday 12 January. The meeting starts at 7.00pm. She will be giving an update on how LB Hounslow is coping with the Covid crisis. Laura Ellener, Head Teacher at Chiswick School  will also be giving her r

Which ‘non-essential’ shops are still offering click & collect or deliveries

/in , /by
By Pam O'Toole Retailers whose shops are deemed “non-essential” (such as clothes, art work and ceramics, books, toys) are still trying to work out how much business they can salvage during the current lockdown. Some, particularly the larger ones, have wholeheartedly embraced click and collect services and/ or delivery services. Other, smaller, operations are more cautious,

First vaccinations being carried out at Chiswick Health Centre

/in , /by
Image above: Queue for vaccinations mid-morning on Friday 8 January The Covid vaccination programme is being delivered primarily at GP surgeries, with 1,000 GP practices at the forefront of providing jabs to the public. The vaccinations are being offered first to elderly people and those who are clinically vulnerable. The NHS will contact you if you are eligible for vaccination at

Vaccination programme rolled out

/in , /by
Image above: Boris Johnson with Chief Executive of the NHS Sir Simon Stevens and Brigadier Phil Prosser The Prime Minister gave a press conference last night (Thursday 7 January) with Sir Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of the NHS and Brigadier Phil Prosser, who is leading the Armed Services' contribution to organising the roll out of Covid vaccinations. He said over 1,000 GP led

Chiswick School starts COVID testing programme

/in , /by

Chiswick School starts testing programme

Staff at Chiswick School have this week started administering coronavirus testing to its staff and students. Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson announced on 15 December that secondary schools would be required to provide mass testing for students from the beginning of the Spring term. They're using the Lateral Flow Tests, the so-called 'Rapi

The Royal Albert Hall – VE day Concert

/in , /by
The Royal Albert has had to cancel its schedule until March. But its YouTube channel has a series of fundraising online concerts put together since the first lockdown to raise money for the iconic institution. They range from Katherine Jenkins singing to mark the 75th anniversary of VE day in the (empty) Hall to the Kaiser Chiefs, Sir Cliff Richard, K.T Tunstall and Richard Thompson doing home gig

Rapid COVID-19 tests available in Hounslow

/in , /by
LB Hounslow are now offering rapid, asymptomatic COVID-19 testing to help reduce the spread of the virus in the borough. Hounslow currently has a very high rate of infection. Data published on Wednesday 6 January shows that 49 people died of COVID-19 in LB Hounslow in December. That’s almost twice the number who died in November and more than twice the number who died in the previous five mon

Big rise in Covid deaths in LB Hounslow in December

/in , /by

Deaths from Covid-19 in LB Hounslow shot up in December

The figures for deaths from Covid-19 show a dramatic increase in the month of December in LB Hounslow. Over the period June - October 2020 there were 21 deaths. In November alone there were 25 deaths but in December the number went up to 49 deaths. The total number of deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate in Hounslow si

Alert Level 5 – what it means

/in , /by

Weeks ahead "hardest yet"

Boris Johnson has said that the weeks ahead would be the "hardest yet" but he believed the country was entering "the last phase of the struggle". Announcing a national lockdown on Monday 4 January, he said the Government is once again instructing us to stay at home. We are at Alert Level 5, the highest level in the plan announced in May. Level 5 means there

Can businesses still offer Click & Collect?

/in , /by
This is our third national lockdown; businesses have become very adept at changing to accommodate each new set of restrictions at the last minute before the deadline when they become law, but the latest set of instructions has retailers scratching their heads. On the day that the new lockdown comes into force, many retailers are still trying to work out whether they are able to offer any servi

Top four categories vaccinated by mid Feb “if things go well”

/in , /by
Image above: Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing that Britain is re-entering national lockdown Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday 4 January that as we go into the third national lockdown, there is one key difference compared to last year. We now have effective vaccines. He described as a "realistic expectation" that by the midd

Prime Minister announces third national lockdown

/in , /by
The Prime Minister announced last night (Monday 4 January) that we are going back into a national lockdown. The new variant of Covid-19 is between 50 and 70% more transmissible. The hospitals are under more pressure than at any time since the start of the pandemic. In England alone the number of Covid patients has increased by nearly a third in the last week, to almost 27,000. That number is

St Michael’s Players: a Christmas Carol

/in , , /by

St Michael's Players: a Christmas Carol

Having read some plays during the year over Zoom, St Michael's Players realised that they could stream a zoom meeting as a “live” performance and there was fun to be had with the format. The “live” performance had the potential to create some real jeopardy: would actors forget to un-mute? would the internet hold up? Would small children

Latest Covid figures for Chiswick

/in , /by

Who is a key worker?

/in /by
Image above: Police (library picture taken before the pandemic) Throughout the pandemic, when the schools have been closed to the majority of pupils, they have been open to those children who are considered 'vulnerable' and to the children of key workers. If a child is considered 'vulnerable', both the school and the parent / carer is aware. There are formal processes involved,

Majority of Chiswick school children stay home

/in , /by
Image above: Cavendish Primary School; Google Street view The schools were meant to be going back this week (5 January 2021). The majority of children and teenagers in Chiswick will be staying at home. Schools in LB Hounslow, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham are amongst those forced to delay the start of the new term in the latest Covid-19 restrictions announced on Wednesday 30 Dece

Chiswick Schools among those closed to majority of pupils by Covid restrictions

/in , /by

Primary schools

Primary schools in LB Hounslow, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham are amongst those forced delay the start of the new term in the latest Covid-19 restrictions announced on Wednesday 30 December. Children of key workers and those d

Latest Covid figures for Chiswick

/in , /by

Click and collect in Chiswick

/in , /by
  Images above: Foster bookshop; Book Case London 'Non essential' items such as clothes and books cannot be sold in person over the counter in Tier 4. Many shops in Chiswick are however offering click and collect services, where you can ring the shop or order through their website and arrange a time to go and pick up your shopping.

Bookshops

Foster Books<

Which shops are considered ‘essential’ and which are not?

/in , /by
Image above: Windfall Natural, Turnham Green Terrace Many of Chiswick's shops sell goods which in Tier 4 are not considered 'essential' - books and clothes for example. They are not allowed to open for customers to enter the shop while Tier 4 restrictions are in place. You may be surprised though at what is included on the 'essential' list. 'You can leave home to buy things at s

Retailers scramble to salvage Christmas

/in , /by
The announcement by Boris Johnson that London would be going into Tier 4 and non-essential shops must close, left retailers and customers scrambling to work out what they could still salvage from the Christmas chaos.

London in Tier 4

/in , /by
Image above: Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing that London is going into Tier 4 Following a meeting of the Covid Operations Committee, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that from midnight on Saturday 19 December, London, the South East and various parts of the East of England would go into a new Tier 4 of anti Covid restrictions, equivalent to the national restrictions w

A critically important Covid message

/in , /by
Hounslow's Director of Public Health, Kelly O'Neill, issued the following message on Friday 18 December: 'Today I am sharing the latest infection rate chart for Hounslow borough. The graph below is stark. It is hard to mak

Long queues at the post office – and how to beat them

/in , /by
Queues at the post office can be long at the best of times. At the moment queues at Chiswick Post Office are unusually long. Christmas fast approaching might seem like the obvious answer for this, but this year Covid-19 is having an additional impact. When you've queued for up to an hour to post your parcel it is very annoying to see just half the service counters open, but customers aren't the

Can I still go away for Christmas?

/in , /by

London enters Tier 3

On Monday 14 December Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that London was going into Tier 3. The restrictions include avoiding travelling outside our own area. But the rules for the five day period around Christmas are different. From one minute past midnight on the morning of Wednesday 16 December

If