Midsomer Norton’s B&NES Councillors have called an urgent meeting with representatives of the Town Council in order to prepare a Community Resilience Plan for the town, should the coronavirus be confirmed in the area. At the time of going to press, there were 51 confirmed cases in the UK, with 13,911 people tested.

Cllr Paul Myers (Conservative, Midsomer Norton Redfield), raised the issue at the Town Council on Monday evening, explaining that whilst public health agencies would take the lead, local community leaders had an important role to play in sharing local knowledge and resources and providing an important link with the town’s voluntary organisations and the wider community.

He added a key aspect would be how to ensure, as a town, that the needs of vulnerable residents were met if resources became stretched, for example, checking on neighbours and getting shopping and helping with practical issues.

It was also discussed that whilst public health advice and guidelines must be followed on reducing contact, that the impact on the local business community was considered, in particular, the High Street traders who themselves provide a vital community role.

In summary, Cllr Myers emphasised that rather than writing endless drafts of documents, what is needed is a summary of details and practical measures so that the town is organised should the virus spread.

Town Mayor, Michael Evans, responding on behalf of the Town Council, agreed to set up a meeting in the next few days.

Speaking after Monday evening’s meeting, Cllr Chris Watt, (Conservative, Midsomer Norton Redfield), said: “It is highly unlikely that we can avoid widespread infections in our community – what we can to do together is slow down the rate at which the infection spreads from one to another.

“This will reduce the number of infections at any one time, enabling our health service to treat our worst affected neighbours by not swamping the NHS.

“It will help move the peak of infections to later in the year, hopefully late Spring or Summer, when this type of virus will find it harder to infect people: this buys time to make more preparations.

“Right now, we need to follow the public health advice. Cough and sneeze into a tissue and bin it. Clean yours and the children’s hands when you get home from school, shopping or the park. Use a paper towel or glove at the petrol pump. Use contactless payment if you can.

“We touch our mouth and nose around ninety times a day without thinking about it, so let’s try and make sure our hands are clean when we do.

“Overall, it is well established that where the whole community comes together to work in partnership with the emergency services, it is more effective and eventual recovery afterwards is quicker.”

Cllr Shaun Hughes, (Midsomer Norton North), also highlighted the need to get key health advice out to the general public on the basis that everyone has a role to play in fighting the coronavirus and ensure all information is factual and proportionate.

At a meeting last week, B&NES Council were told that the coronavirus outbreak is unlikely to have a big impact on Bath and North East Somerset’s economy, according to a disease control expert.

At that particular meeting, Councillor Chris Watt was accused of verging on scaremongering when he said publicly: “This virus is coming to town, whether we like it or not.”

Tourism to Bath is heavily reliant on visitors from China, where the virus was first identified, and he said the Council’s budget had “manifestly failed” to recognise the impact it would have.

But Cllr Bharat Pankhania, a consultant in communicable disease control, downplayed the risk to the authority’s finances.

Speaking at the Full Council meeting on February 26th, Cllr Watt said: “We will feel the impact of covid-19 (the technical name for the coronavirus.)

“There’s a manifest failure to plan for the impact on the budget in sufficient detail. There’s a line in the budget for heritage services of £8.8 million.

“Anyone who thinks covid-19 is going to stay in the Far East is living in a fantasy world.

“China owns virtually all the copper industry, all the railways and many assets in Zambia. It’s inconceivable this virus not working its way through east Africa. It’s not reported because they aren’t capable of dealing with it.

“This virus is coming to town, whether we like it or not. The travel restrictions being imposed are but a fraction of what we are going to see.”

B&NES Council has just adopted a business plan for its heritage services that “assumes that there will be no significant geo-political,

security, economic, environmental or meteorological events in the next five years that will inhibit people’s willingness to travel or visit UK attractions.”

This year’s budget, approved at the meeting, expects the department, which is responsible for the Roman Baths, the Fashion Museum, the Victoria Art Gallery and the Guildhall banqueting room, to boost its profits by £900,000.

Cllr Watt said: “Bicester village has seen an 85 per cent reduction in tourism from China.

“We aren’t recognising our heritage services or the impact of reduced tourism. It’s not sufficient to say our reserves can resolve it. Reserves are for things that aren’t expected. This is something which is going to happen.

“We are going to see reduced visitor numbers. There should be a plan for it.”

Cllr Pankhania, who had been giving media interviews throughout the meeting, said: “You need to be cautious.

“I don’t think coronavirus will affect your budget as much as Cllr Watt said: “It’s better to be cautious than calm. I don’t think it will have a big impact.”

Finance boss, Cllr Richard Samuel, said: “Cllr Watt was over-egging the impact and heading towards scaremongering.

“Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, said it would be be bigger than SARS (an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed 774 people in 2002 and 2003), but it was too early to say what the impact would be.”

Cllr Yukteshwar Kumar speaks Chinese and has spent a lot of time studying the progress of the virus. He told the meeting: “Every single hour, there’s a death in Europe. It’s very near. We must be highly prepared.”

Cllr Karen Walker said the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and the weather may also impact on tourism.

The Department of Health and Social Care is publishing updated information on the Government website every day at 2 p.m. until further notice. The UK’s risk has been raised from low to moderate.

Returning travellers from China, Iran, Northern Italy, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar or Vietnam should self-isolate and use the 111 online coronavirus service to find out what to do next. Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.