More than 170 volunteers have come forward to help elderly and vulnerable people in the Broughton Astley area

Over 170 volunteers have come forward to help elderly and vulnerable people in the Broughton Astley area.

The community has reacted brilliantly to support those most in need during the coronavirus emergency.

Cllr Clive Grafton-Reed, chair of Broughton Astley Parish Council, said: “There has been a fantastic response to the call for volunteers.

“We have already registered over 170 people who have rallied to the call.

“We are now issuing then with picture IDs with their unique reference number.”

He said they have acted after local people contacted him and Parish Manager Debbie Barber last month to do something positive.

“The Parish Council met on the 18th of March and passed an emergency resolution to make funding and resources immediately available to support the group,” said Cllr Grafton-Reed.

He said he quickly started an “operational hub” in Broughton Astley along with Mark Barber and Debbie Barber.

“Our team was quickly joined by Jenny Row, Jan Briggs, Mandy Lynch and Cery Adcock to create Broughton Astley Volunteer Group.

“Things moved very quickly.

“A single telephone help line number was replaced by a virtual network set up by Vodafone using a central freephone line (0808 528 4477),” said Cllr Grafton-Reed.

“This is covered by five volunteers and is capable of being expanded further if necessary.

“The team recognised from the start that all the systems had to be robust in case any members of the team fell ill.

“A volunteer and residents referral system was also set up.

“In order to protect residents from bogus volunteers, a general data protection regulation compliant cloud-hosted database was set up to register volunteers and verify them.

“As Broughton Astley is effectively a local hub we have reached out to parish councils and groups in Froleworth, Leire, Dunton Basset, Ashby Parva and Ashby Magna making them aware of the growing capability of our volunteer group.

“A leaflet drop was organised because despite being on Facebook, and the Parish Council website, we are trying to reach those who tend not to be online.

“The Squirrels running club delivered leaflets to every house and with over 2500 houses and a population of over 9000 people that is a lot of miles.”

Cllr Grafton-Reed said elderly people “wanted help with their normal food shopping”.

“The smaller shops were able to handle payments over the phone but supermarkets can’t.

“The existing community group Broughton Alive has stepped in to deploy a mobile card reader system which accepts contactless and card payments so we can cope with the supermarket shops if need be,” said the parish councillor.

He said their group has stepped in to provide a delivery service to people getting prescriptions from the pharmacy in Broughton Astley.

“That service will stay in place as long as it is needed.

“So any patients of the Broughton pharmacy who are in the at-risk group should be able to get their prescription delivered,” said Cllr Grafton-Reed.

“Ringrose the butchers already had a loyal customer base.

“But many could no longer collect their food so a separate collection service has now set up to cover that.

“We know things are going to develop over the next few weeks.

“Our core team is in constant contact, seven days a week, reacting to the many challenges as they come at us.”