East Devon District Council says it is committed to supporting residents and businesses as they overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

During the course of the COVID-19 crisis, the council has worked quickly to ensure residents, communities and businesses have been well informed, supported and protected, and has now released a new 'infobite' capturing its response during these challenging times.

The infobite, pictured above, summarises in one place many of the council's activities undertaken, including the thousands of calls it has taken from people needing help, the number of emergency food parcels and dietary boxes delivered to residents, the support and funding given to community groups and businesses, as well as continuing to collect record amounts of recycling and waste from lockdown onwards.

The council is proud of its performance saying that councillors and staff, working with communities and volunteers, have "stepped up to the challenge to help our district through the pandemic".

Councillor Jess Bailey, the district council's portfolio holder for COVID-19 Response and Recovery, said that a huge amount of work took place behind the scenes to help ensure that everything ran smoothly.

She commented: "East Devon District Council stepped in to help vulnerable people at a time of great need. We know our local area and our residents so we were in the perfect position to offer personalised support.

"I am proud of all our officers who worked tirelessly and who consistently did their best to respond to people's needs during this exceptional period.

"Our work doesn't stop. We will continue to help our district come through this pandemic and support those who need assistance."

In the early days of the lockdown, the council helped people who needed some extra support with sourcing food supplies. This was especially the case in April and May when it was difficult to get supermarket deliveries, and not everyone had connected with their local voluntary group.

To tide people over until they could arrange their own food supply, the district council bought and distributed emergency food boxes. Residents phoned the district council's coronavirus community hub helpline or emailed requests for help and the council worked alongside Devon County Council.

Now that shielding has ceased, the council is offering our remaining boxes to food banks across East Devon. Seven food banks have been contacted and we are liaising with each of them to arrange a suitable delivery time in the next few days.