Coronavirus (COVID-19) update

By Clare Groom

Posted 19th March 2020

In National Landscape updates

Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives

Please follow the latest Government guidance on Coronavirus (COVID-19): what you need to do.

Here are some other links you may find useful:

Government guidance on accessing green spaces

Coronavirus advice in Devon

Coronavirus advice in Somerset

We wanted to update all the communities and the partners that we work with on our response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Like many organisations, Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is following the latest advice on the situation from Public Health England.

In light of this,

Our office in Hemyock will be closed until further notice. However, the team is equipped to be able to work from home so we can still take phone calls and respond to emails as usual. All our contact details remain the same, including our main office phone number and email address:

Main office number: 01823 680 681

General email enquiries: blackdownhills@devon.gov.uk

You can contact AONB team members directly

Or get in touch via our website

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns. Do, however, keep in mind that this is a changing situation and there is possibility that some of our staff may be off sick or caring for others. Also, the internet may be running more slowly due to increased demand. This could mean that we may not be able to respond as quickly as we would normally, but we will keep in touch nevertheless!

We will be either postponing or cancelling all planned face-to-face events, volunteering activities, and nature and wellbeing group activities.

We have decided to postpone publication of our printed events calendar for the time being. Instead please check our online events calendar for the latest updates. We are currently printing a new visitor guide to the area which will be ready to be distributed as soon as the situation allows.

We have started to hold meetings remotely and we are exploring ways in which we can stay in touch using other means.

We will endeavour to monitor post delivered to our office, but please be aware that as this situation develops this may not be possible, so please use alternative ways of contacting us if possible.

We appreciate that it is a challenging time for everyone and that you may be feeling anxious about the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on your family, friends, neighbours and livelihoods. It is more important than ever that we pull together as a community and support each other as best we can.

There are many ways in which the natural beauty of our landscape can have an uplifting and calming influence. With all the worrying news stories being shared, taking a breather and enjoying what we can of our natural world is so important to our health and wellbeing.

We therefore plan over the coming weeks to keep in touch with everyone and share some of the natural health benefits of our landscape, even if, for the time being, we must to do that from afar.

So please do stay in touch…