Corona Virus - Avoiding Catching It

1. Remember not to be terrified - most people will only suffer minor flu-like symptoms. Firstly, to explain self-isolation, in case you have the symptoms. If you don't understand what the symptoms are, or you think you have it, please click the link above: "I'm Showing Symptoms".

2. Self-Isolation is for people who are showing symptoms of the Corona-Virus (AKA Covid-19/SARS CoV-19). If you do develop symptoms in the future, immediately call 119 and book a test.

3. You won't be able to get a test if you just turn up at the hospital without being admitted for existing health conditions. If you have self-isolated for seven days and you continue to have symptoms, you should call 111 and take further advice and continue to self-isolate (if you live alone - there is separate instructions for people who live with others - everybody should self-isolate until the last person who has shown symptoms has self-isolated for fourteen days and no longer shows symptoms.

4. Self-Isolation is about the protection of everybody, including your family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues and the wider community. If you do not have symptoms and you are expected to travel to work, push your Employer to allow home working unless its absolutely necessary and try to avoid public transport. Wead a mask if you have to travel on public transport unless you suffer with a condition that is on the exceptions from mask wearing list. You will soon (as of July 2020) have to wear a mask at the shops too. Rules around wearing masks apply to everybody but if you have symptoms, you should be self isolating and not travelling or visiting shops or anywhere else anyway.

5. Self-Isolation is also about protecting Contractors calling at your home, the emergency services, Avro Hollows' TMO, Manchester City Council, Northwards' staff and volunteers and the CDIRF team who all need to help as many people as possible. These people will all, in turn, come into contact with people. By not going out at all if you have the symptoms, and keeping the 1 metre (3 foot) plus distance the rest of the time, you help us all to avoid spreading the virus. Keep your head in gear!

6. Wash your hands with soap and water often - please do this for at least 20 seconds. Use genuine hand sanitiser wherever possible too.

7. Always wash your hands with soap and water as soon as you get to a place that you can, whenever there is an opportunity when you go out and as often as possible.

8. Use hand santiser gel if soap and water is not available (if you can get hold of it) - Linda Brokenshire, Estate Manager at Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation has installed hand sanitiser in all tower blocks in reception areas - please do not refill it or remove it. This will be placed under cameras to avoid the odd person who would consider it OK to steal it.

9. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze. If you do accidentally sneeze or cough straight into your hands - do not touch anything and wash your hands (as above). There is now a strong suggestion that people can spread the Corona Virus before getting the symptoms or without getting the symptoms at all: "super-spreaders".

10. Please put used tissues in the bin immediately and wash your hands as soon as you possibly can (as above).

11. Try to avoid close contact (in person) with people who are unwell (but please support your neighbours with the front door staying shut as a barrier if they have come down with it) - or phone - people really appreciate a supportive voice at their lowest ebb (you could also Skype if you have data or similar and do video). Please respect those who just want to rest in peace and quiet alone - some do - it's not personal

12. Never spit in public places or disgard your gum in public places - please use a toilet if you must. Report people that do to the Estate Office (or to us), in confidence, keeping a note of the date and time for the purposes of estate CCTV.

13. Make sure rubbish goes into wheeled bins please around the estate, this stops foxes ripping open the bin bags. It's worth making sure your bin bag is weighty enough to stop it blowing back out of the bin too but you could avoid throwing tissues away in a bin bag if you are at home as you could flush them straight down the loo (obviously don't block your loo with anything else though!!)

14. If you do go on to have the symptoms of the virus, double bag rubbish and wait 72 hours before taking it outside. Don’t recycle anything that saliva could have come into contact with (drinks cans etc).

15. Anything small could go down the rubbish shoots but please make sure you bag it and double tie the bag to protect the binmen and caretakers. All such rubbish can currently be disposed of with your normal waste. Wheeled Bins are being emptied as normal.

16. When fussing any of your pets or other people’s pets, please wash your hands before and after - this is in case other people have fussed them and there is also some suggestion that humans can pass on the Corona Virus to animals such that they become sick (although it is said that they can’t directly pass it back, other than in their fur).

17. Never shake hands as it means you are not keeping your distance and you are putting yourself and others at risk - we love shaking people's hands and this is gutting, come up with your own code and say "i'd normally shake your hand but..." As I write, I bowed my head to someone the other day - that worked!

18. Only travel on public transport if you really need to - Transport for Manchester has nearly got bus services back to normal but tram services are stopping very early. They say this is to impose more cleaning of vehicles including trams and buses. You might also find that some train services are affected. It is now a legal requirement to wear a mask on all public transport unless you are exempt due to a medical exemption, you could get a hefty fine otherwise. With the nicer weather, consider walking or cycling.

19. Work from home, if you can - if you were furloughed and it is essential for you to travel to your place of work, the government is now saying that you should and they are cutting back on furloughing.

20. Some cinemas and pubs are now back open - if they can demonstrate that they can ensure social distancing. Pubs are being run on table service only with restrictions on how many people can order drinks at the till and you cannot drink at the counter. Pubs are also taking contact details in case there is an outbreak of Corona Virus amongst pubgoers. Cinemas are limiting the number of people that they let in to see a film and insisting on people sitting away from people that they don't know.

21. Fast food chains do not seem to have caught up although some continue to offer either a take-away or a delivery service, Many places have put in place what they are calling "self distancing measures” where you must stand a certain distance away from each other. Most take aways that you can eat at (where tables are provided) are still not offering the ability to sit at a table or use the loo so you will need to eat outside of the place that you buy your food. If you are desperate to use the toilet, most shopping centres are back open.

22. You can purchase most things online. This reduces your chances of being exposed to the Corona Virus. Be aware that Royal Mail and parcel companies are not asking for signatures and that they are leaving parcels on the landings.

23. Gatherings of more than 30 people outdoors, and more than 2 households indoors, have now been banned by law. The gestapo can issue fines and disperse larger groups. The vast majority of public events have been cancelled indoors but some outdoor events, where the management can demonstrate that social distancing is possible and that it will be ensured, can now go ahead, sometimes with more than 30 people. Most big events have been postponed until 2021.

24. The Government is now allowing foreign travel to certain countries but some countries may insist on you going through a period of quarantine, when you arrive, and the UK Government is insisting on you quarantining yourself when you return from certain countries. You can find more information on the www.gov.uk website (the Foreign Office section).

25. Please do share this advice but communicate that it is provided without liability being accepted - this means that if you use it, or anybody else uses it, you agree not to take any kind of legal action against us.

Other than some extra additional pointers, this advice was adapted from the NHS Website available from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19 (opens a new window) and following the latest government annoucements on changes in the law covered in the mainstream media (BBC, Sky News, ITV (ITN) News etc).

Further Information..

The estate comprises of four tower blocks and two rows of houses split into two flats (there are no cows but most of these flats do smell of cheese due to the damp in them). Some of the flats across the estate contain 1 and, shockingly, 2 and 3 bedrooms.

Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation purport to manage the estate on behalf of Manchester City Council, in association with Northwards housing (Northwards' Housing will, however, deny all knowledge of this). The estate is most definitely not run for the benefit of the local community with some residents describing the estate as an "open prison".

To find out more...please read our article "more about the estate" below.

Who We Are..

This website and its online community was set up by a resident on the Croydon Drive Estate who may or may not be closely related to C.G.B. Spender (the truth is not out there). It is entirely free to use and to become a member and it always will be. Personally identifiable information is not collected or stored protecting the anonymity of members. We only publish the tower block of the residents (so the person writing will be 1/72 or 71 people - dependent on the specific tower block).

It is not a breach of a resident's tenancy agreement to join Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum. The right to set up tenant groups is in fact specifically protected within resident's tenancy agreements.

The starting point for the forum was to create an online presence. The forum itself has the ability for members to send private messages (not read by the forum admin) and Members are encouraged to use their common sense in remaining anonymous and protecting themselves online. There is a reporting feature above all posts should anybody be concerned about the content - particularly where it is discriminatory or hateful - humour is of course allowed within reason.

Members are encouraged to have their say and provide feedback on the existing forum sections (including the popular "The Vent" and various general interests categories) and to request new ones. This also extends now to website content. We strongly urge residents to register using the unique registration code letters, most recently posted through doors in August 2019 by one of our kind elves.

The Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum is, unfortunately, not open to Contractors, Employees or Volunteers (including members) of Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation, Northwards' Housing or Manchester City Council to protect the integrity of the forum and the anonymity of members and access is not permitted from locations run by them to protect the security of login details.

To ensure that our security policies are upheld vigorously for the benefit of members, we regularly lookup IP addresses that are logged when members log in. Our independence policy was ratified by members in 2018.

The Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum is set up by residents to further the interests of residents. It's that simple. A large part of that is to take the current Directorship (Avro Hollows' TMO) to task where they fail residents through causing as much embarrassment as possible.

If any residents struggle to register (you need to sign up using the register option), please do use the contact form link above (or the contact link on the forum itself).

If you are a resident who has not yet registered - what are you waiting for? A very warm welcome awaits!

About Our Estate..

The estate has security gates at every entrance where many tenants cannot get in and out of all of the gates without pressing the buzzer (although thieves can) and it has so many cameras that it puts Big Brother to shame. All tenants have their mugshots taken to aid with tracking them from the moment they leave their flat until they leave the estate (perhaps further?) and there is a 24 hour live feed available to lucky viewers on Channel Commsec.

Cameras are monitored by Commsec Security (when it suits them - incidents that tenants report are rarely ever captured) who, until at least very recently, controlled the access controls in Greater Manchester Police buildings - what do you know! Until recently, it was commonplace for gate intercom calls to go unanswered (including in 2020 to 7 fire engines attending a small kitchen fire in Lancaster Court), particularly in the winter, leaving tenants to get soaked. Commsec Security are, however, excellent at bellowing over the multiple speaker tannoy system from their offices about 1.5 miles away and regularly using foul language at the weekend when the Estate Manager isn't working..

There are entrance intercoms on each tower block. On two of them, tenants do not ever get to speak to their visitors as the dial pad has been removed and replaced with a camera, and, on the other two, Commsec Security like to randomly divert intercom calls to them when they get bored. On all four tower blocks, Commsec Security like to have a conversation with your guests instead, particularly when your food (and takeaway driver) is getting cold.

The MGMT..

We do have a highly motivated* Estate Manager (*highly motivated in going out of her way to cause trouble even though she has not been here very long) and, along with the Directors, the team ensure that the majority view of residents is never put forward and they won't think twice about harassing residents if they don't like you.

Employees are not disclosure and barring board checked and at least one has a serious criminal record, even though their employment at Avro Hollows' (which is paid for by Manchester City Council) could lead to them entering your home. "What happened to safeguarding" you might ask...

We take this moment to pay homage to the old Estate Manager who was a complete legend. More news on her leaving is due to hit you soon but it will make for very grim reading when we get her permission to publish it and we suspect the press will be very interested in Avro Hollows' TMO's behaviour too.

Our residents have had issue after issue with getting repairs carried out and with the way in which Manchester City Council and Northwards' Housing have managed new kitchen and bathroom provision on the estate. It is touch and go whether anybody answers the lift breakdown alarms and the quality of connection is so poor that they can't hear you when they do answer.

Contractors work without consulting residents and are as disruptive as possible. Complaints go nowhere when forwarded to Northwards' Housing. To this end, and more widely, Avro Hollows' TMO could not give a toss about what the resident majority want despite receiving around £250k a year of Manchester City Council funding. It's high time they went.

The Board..

The TMO board are extremely selective about who they invite to their meetings (you'd have more chance of being invited to bank with Coutts) and the majority of tenants do not get a look in or a say on anything at TMO board meetings where they are no longer announced for fear of tenants protesting.

Avro Hollows' TMO are certainly not there to make the experience of living on the Croydon Drive estate a "really happy one" unless you are one of a select few on the board with access to around £250k a year grant funding (from Manchester City Council).

Welcome to the Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum where we do things differently and respect each other.