BIG PICTURE
AFTER working at Macclesfield College for over 20 years, I am compelled to defend the principle and governors in their ultimate care and swift, effective actions, towards staff and our learners during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Dismayed by a recent article published by the Express, suggesting staff were forced to attend during our ‘virtual’ open day, clearly led the public into an unrealistic view that does not represent the general feelings of my colleagues.
We have been instructed to work from home and have not been put under any pressure whatsoever to enter the college unless by doing so, it helps our learners achieve their goal.
This was then restricted to one day/week, where senior managers greeted you at the main entrance with recommended PPE and advice.
Face masks, alcohol gels, automatic non-touch dispensers are all repeated throughout the college with a one-way system in place.
The college grounds, classrooms and corridors are deep cleansed and signs repeated frequently for social distancing, clearly for our health and wellbeing and in readiness for any government guidelines for September.
During our prompt lockdown, the health of learners and staff have been paramount, with frequent information regarding any Covid-19 developments.
Compared to many people I know, working for the NHS and many other industries, I am grateful and fortunate to be in a safe and privileged situation, working from home, ensuring our learners have not been disadvantaged in their achievements.
There was a comment regarding ‘no union consultation’ I have been a union member for over 30 years and under our present principal, I have never needed to consult them over my wellbeing here at the college.
We all know when our health is being compromised and the college is clearly taking good care of everyone. Graham White, Macclesfield College, engineering department
THANKS TO OUR SCHOOOLS
A HUGE thank you to all of our school teachers, assistants and governors who have worked hard to plan, prepare and organise classrooms, playgrounds and dinner halls into Covid friendly spaces.
A challenging task but it is wonderful to witness the delight of children being able to return.
As local councillors we are supportive of free school lunches continuing across the summer.
This would be a fantastic support to parents and carers, most importantly to the children.
We urge Cheshire East administration to consider supporting this scheme in our local communities this summer.
Councillor Jos Saunders Poynton East and Pott Shrigley
CONCERN AT FLOOD DELAYS
WE are writing in our capacity as Cheshire East Councillors representing Nantwich and Poynton Wards and are writing to express our grave concerns about the long delays in Cheshire East undertaking flood investigations in our wards.
We are pushing for this work to be prioritised as we are concerned for the welfare of the residents who were flooded, as the whole issue is dragging on and causing unnecessary stress and upset.
We fully appreciate and understand the problems the flooding teams face and we are grateful for the attention the issues have received so far but the delays prompt us to ask the following questions:
1 There are a number of flood investigations still to complete and it would be useful to know how many? What criteria was used for ranking their respective urgency and where do the Nantwich and Poynton cases stand in the ranking?
2 It would also be interesting to know how many cases have been resolved and the level of satisfaction experienced by those affected.
3 Has the extent of the funding required to do these investigations been calculated and where is the funding to come from? Has Central Government been asked for financial help in addressing this? Councillors Peter Groves and Mike Beanland
CONTINUE WITH FREE PARKING
CHESHIRE East have now re-introduced charging for car parking again around the town.
It has been great for the past three months for all the admin staff at Waters Green who are part of the NHS and have worked through lockdown to be granted free parking privileges on the council car parks around the medical centre instead of having to find parking on the side streets of Macclesfield. None of which could be said to be close to their workplace.
Would it be a big ask for these staff to continue to receive this privilege?
Some would say I am biased as my wife works there but it’s a small thing that would go a long way as a thank you to all of these hardworking people. Philip Lackford via email