The offices may be closed but the work goes on. Sedgemoor District Council has put in place today a range of measures to help some of the businesses in the District affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19). It has created a page on its website where these measures are described and which has links to other help and advice available, regionally and nationally.
In line with the Government announcement about Grant Funding for small businesses and those in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sectors, the Council has created an online form that should be used to apply for the grants. Eligible businesses are asked to supply some basic information to help officers to process the payments. Any business unable to use the online form will be given assistance and guidance on eligibility is given on the grants page:
The Council aims to get payments into the bank accounts of the eligible businesses within ten working days of receiving the required information from the online form. If for some reason this is not possible, the Council will contact the business concerned.
As well as administering the grants, Sedgemoor has applied the 100% Extended Retail Rates Discount for 2020/21, meaning that that eligible businesses will have no rates to pay during 2020/21 on the premises concerned. If these businesses were due to have rates payments collected by direct debit from April these will not now be taken.