THE CHAIRMAN of a village hall in Monmouthshire has praised the work of volunteers and the use of the hall in helping the community during the coronavirus outbreak.

Andy Pullan, who is chairman of Catbrook Memorial Hall, helped to assemble a group of volunteers named Catbrook Cares in mid-March.

The group has helped to take delivery orders for food and prescriptions at the hall to help local stores stay in business, and is operating a delivery service, as well as a phone calling operation to ensure no-one is left isolated during lockdown.

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“It’s no secret that Catbrook has more of a senior population, and it’s a small community,” said Mr Pullan.

“I think it is even more important in small communities that people are not left behind."

Some businesses, like grocery store Evans of Monmouth, had started a delivery services in lockdown which proved so popular that it became difficult to cope with the level of demand.

Now, instead of delivering to individual residents, Evans of Monmouth will deliver fortnightly to the village hall.

Volunteers at the hall have also agreed a collection service with Trellech Surgery for prescriptions on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“It’s an ideal way for us to offer our services, reduce workload on staff, and to keep people as safe as possible” Mr Pullan added.

People are still able to order food and prescriptions, but rather than deliver to each household, items will be delivered to the hall and people can collect from there, or volunteers can deliver to households.

The deadline for ordering food deliveries to the hall in time for Thursday, April 9 (the first delivery date) is Tuesday, April 7.

If you would like to use the service’s prescription process, you will need to provide Trellech Surgery with the name of the volunteer who will be collecting.

If you order your prescriptions online, there is a free text box where you can add the name of the volunteer.

If you need someone to collect a prescription, contact Catbrook Cares either by email (Catbrookcares@gmail.com) or call 01291 689474, before you contact the surgery.