COUNCIL staff will mostly be working from home under the latest guidance from the government.

Large numbers of staff at Oxfordshire County Council and Cherwell District Council have been told to work from home from now onwards in line with government strategy.

Both councils are awaiting guidance on how meetings usually held in public could be managed online before deciding if they should all be postponed.

Also read: Coronavirus updates for Oxfordshire

Chief executive of both Cherwell District Council and Oxfordshire County Council, Yvonne Rees, said: “The advice from central Government is clear. If people can work from home they should. We will be following that advice.

“For some time now we have been working with staff to ensure that they are equipped and ready to work from home and we have now reached the stage at which we are asking them to do so. People who can work from home, will work from home.”

Frontline services such as fire and rescue, waste collections, highways and adults and children’s social care will continue to operate as normal.

The county council’s new director of Public Health Ansaf Azhar said: “We have urged all of our staff to follow advice from central Government and Public Health England we say the same to the people of Oxfordshire.

“Advice will change as we move through the next few weeks and keeping in touch with those changes will be very important as we all seek to look after ourselves, our families our friends and our work colleagues.”