PEMBROKESHIRE County Council Leader, Councillor David Simpson, has provided a further coronavirus update.

“The council has announced the following developments in our county today (Thursday, March 19):

• all Pembrokeshire County Council leisure centres and libraries will close at 3.15pm tomorrow (Friday, March 20) until further notice.

• the Pembrokeshire Archives and Local Studies ceased its front-line service as at 5pm yesterday (Wednesday, March 18).

• Scolton Manor, its museum, tea room and visitor centre will also close at 3.15pm tomorrow, but the grounds and play areas will remain open.

• the Bridge Innovation Centre (BIC) in Pembroke Dock has closed its doors to the public as from today.

• householders are being urged not to put used tissues in paper recycling boxes and help to protect Pembrokeshire County Council staff.

"I am also pleased to announce that we have put in place a scheme whereby children eligible for free school meals will be provided daily with a breakfast, lunch and snack.

For further details on the scheme click on: www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/coronavirus

“The more general updates I want to highlight today are:

• where possible our office-based council staff have now been redeployed to home-working using what are called ‘agile working’ methods. We already had arrangements in place to facilitate this and it is currently working well. We are also setting up a temporary digital mailroom to ensure that all services can access and deal with mail remotely

• we are urgently considering - as part of Business Continuity Planning work - the possible redeployment of suitable staff to mitigate the potential effects of reduced staff numbers on critical services

• the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections - May 7 – have been postponed

• from next week schools will help support those most in need including people involved in the immediate response to the coronavirus outbreak. We are awaiting further guidance from Welsh Government and are feeding this in to our own planning

• as from today access to County Hall via main reception will be limited. The main entrance doors and those at the rear of reception (the riverside) will be locked. Members of the public will be directed to North Wing reception.

"Finally, this afternoon we held a consultative meeting with our trade unions. The meeting was very positive and there was a commitment all round to being as flexible as possible in our coronavirus response."

Useful links:

• www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/coronavirus

• www.sir-benfro.gov.uk/coronafeirws

• https://phw.nhs.wales/

• Iechyd Cyhoeddus Cymru - Coronafeirws Newydd (COVID-19) - Cyngor hunan-ynysu

• https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-guidance