Today, 24th March 2020, we sent out a message to our hirers on how we are dealing with the corona virus outbreak and what it means for hirers. In the message we said….
We want to tell you how St Peter’s is dealing with the corona virus outbreak. We know that many of you have told us that you have cancelled or postponed your events but since the government announcement last night we are closed for all general events in St Peter’s. We will however open to host essential voluntary or public services if requested.
We have offered free use of St Peter’s to Sudbury Town Council (and through them to the District and County Council) if they need it.
We have offered free use of St Peter’s to our local StoreHouse food bank if they need it.
Late last week the government announced that all leisure venues must be closed and therefore all events in St Peters that could be classed as a leisure event (i.e. entertainment, music, artistic, craft fairs and similar events) should be cancelled and we will treat them all as cancelled. As soon though as the government advice is that it is safe for these events to go ahead we will do our best to offer replacement dates to our hirers. We are therefore not taking any new bookings for this calendar year so that there will be some availability for hirers. We are also not offering replacement hire dates at this stage until we know when events can re-start. Once we know this we will contact all hirers whose events could not go ahead to see if they want a replacement date and then see how these can be accommodated as clearly there will be issues with availability but we will deal with that nearer the time once we know the scale of the problem. For non- commercial hires we will transfer any deposits paid to a replacement date, if a replacement date is not required or is not available we will offer a refund if requested. For commercial hires that could not take place we will do our best to provide a replacement date for your event.
We know that many of the events in St Peters are run by a dedicated group of volunteers. We also know that at this time there will be many people in Sudbury who need help. Sudbury Town Council is co-ordinating volunteers to help in whatever way they can – if you or anyone in your group can help please do email volunteer@sudburytowncouncil.co.uk. The government has tasked district councils with co-ordinating resources at town and parish level so Babergh District Council will be liaising with Sudbury Town Council on what needs to be done and what resources are required to do this. This vital planning process may mean you do not get an immediate response from Sudbury Town Council so please be patient.
Please do contact Hilary if you have any questions or queries on this.
