Covid-19 update 7th June

[Mark Perry]

PPCA CLUB UPDATE ON THE COVID-19 SITUATION

Hopefully, you are all fit and well and have not had any experiences with the Corona and that this will continue to be so.
As we write this there has been a slight blip in the virus figures which has put us into one of the top areas of the country for this infection as it stands this weekend so we still have to be very diligent in how we go about recommencing our club activities in line with the advice passed down from British Canoeing. As some of you already know the government has now made the decision for us to be able to paddle in groups of six, providing, we still maintain the social distancing. Privately you may paddle whenever you wish to but club wise this is a very different scenario where we have to abide by a certain number of rules the like of which we are sure most of you are already experiencing in the shops, supermarkets and public transport. For us to enable this to happen we must put in place a Risk Assessment, signage, hand washing facilities, cleaning materials to disinfect club equipment before and after use and much more. This in effect means that this is going to take a while to implement. In addition to all this we are governed by the Mount Batten Centre (MB) in so far as when they are going to open the facilities for us to be able to use our sheds. The MB centre is the hub of several other affiliated member sports associations all of whom must produce a risk assessment to the centre before any of us can resume our activities. The most advanced date that this is likely to happen is somewhere at the beginning of July so sadly until everything is in place for the whole of the Centre, we still cannot organise any club paddles. The government is continually changing the rules so be aware that we may be able to open up our numbers and possibly have a reduced social distancing to observe but likewise if there is a spike in the affected numbers obviously things could also go in the opposite direction. We will try to keep you up to date as much as is possible
As a result of all this and in preparation for the restart of club activities there are a couple of questions, we would like to raise which are as follows.
1. Obviously, there will be the question of whether any of our coaches will be prepared to run any of the activities we would like to include in our new programme. Marty will be sending out a separate questionnaire to all the coaches regarding this
2. Most importantly do you as the members wish for this to be implemented. Those of you with your own boats do not have so much of a problem but those of you who rely on the use of Club equipment it means much more.
3. It would also be interesting for us in the planning of the restart to identify those members that do wish to continue with the Award Schemes and to have an idea as to what level you achieved at the end of last year .

Finally we are very aware that some of you have your own boats stored in the Members shed for which you have paid a subscription for and while we can make arrangements for the collection of your boats for your own use if you wish to do so, unfortunately because of all the restrictions they cannot be returned to the shed until the Club is active again. If there are any of you who wish to take your boats out of the shed please let us know by 1800hrs on Friday evening and we will arrange to be at the centre for you to do this at 0930hrs on Saturday 13th June. If there are several of you, we will give each of you an allotted time of arrival that day. All that we would ask is that you bring with you some form of handwash or disinfectant.
In the meantime, you all take care and “we’ll meet again don’t know where, don’t know when but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day” hopefully soon!!

Ken Hamblin Chair.
Mark Perry Vice Chair
Marty Johnston Club Leader 6th June 2020

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