Ensuring Services Continue Over Christmas

Maintaining the operations of a county throughout the year presents challenges, and Christmas Day is no exception. While thousands in Suffolk celebrate by opening gifts, enjoying meals, and spending time with loved ones, various individuals will be performing their regular duties. Numerous professionals, including call handlers, pub employees, and funeral directors, will carry out their usual work to sustain the county’s functioning. We interviewed several of these individuals to understand their experiences during the holiday in their respective fields. Christopher Rees, 37, a resident of Kesgrave, serves as a deputy operations manager at Sizewell B nuclear power station within the county. This facility not only supplies power to Suffolk but also contributes to the nation’s energy supply. Mr Rees stated, “We recognise that we’re doing something really important for the UK and even if you’re working on Christmas Day, you know you’re keeping the power working, the lights on, keeping the ovens going for when you get home and have your turkey.” He added, “You’ve still got your routine work to do, but there’s definitely a nice atmosphere.” He further elaborated that their role is “just to keep producing electricity to make sure that your families at home and everybody else around Suffolk can have their Christmas dinner and keep their Christmas tree lights on and all that good stuff.” Melissa Abbott, 45, a growing officer at the Food Museum in Stowmarket, will be responsible for feeding all the animals on Christmas Day. Ms Abbott’s day will commence at 05:30 GMT with walking her own dogs, followed by caring for the animals across an 84 acre site, and repeating these tasks in the afternoon. She commented, “A lot of the time you always eat too much on Christmas Day, you sit around too much in a hot house because you’ve got lots of people over, so I don’t mind too much coming to do this as it gets me out in the fresh air.” She explained, “The animals are at the museum to help tell the story of food, past, present and future and help connect people with where their food comes from, whether it’s horses that were used to plough the fields where food is grown or lambs bred for the table.” Rhys Askham, 27, a native of Suffolk now residing in Diss, Norfolk, is employed as a funeral director at Rosedale Funeral Home, which serves both counties. He clarified that this is a round-the-clock industry that operates without pause for Christmas, meaning staff would be on duty. Although Mr Askham believed the industry’s role was frequently overlooked during the holiday season, he affirmed that his team was consistently prepared to assist, and office calls would be rerouted to staff mobile phones to guarantee their accessibility. “Sometimes there is pressure on funeral directors with their own families and many a Christmas Day I’ve had to miss Christmas dinner because the phone has gone,” he stated. He added, “The last thing we want to have, especially on Christmas Day, is someone on hold or listening to theme music.” He concluded, “We want to be able to answer straight away and for them to know that they are dealing with someone local, someone who is going to be looking after them and making the arrangements.” The contact centre for UK Power Networks in Ipswich will staff its telephones on Christmas Day to address any reported problems. Alex Williams, the centre’s head, informed BBC Radio Suffolk that while operations remained “business as usual” during the Christmas period, there was “more of a festive cheer.” He elaborated, “We get the mince pies in, you might be able to hear some festive music playing very softly in the background if you call in, it’s decorated as you’d expect.” He also mentioned, “Our teams do like to get Christmas dinner in but they tend to do that before or after a shift start time and there will be a buffet of sorts available to the guys that are in the building working on the day.” Jo Reeder, 54, serves as the chief executive officer of Communities Together East Anglia, an organization located in Stowmarket dedicated to mitigating loneliness and isolation. Its Community Connect telephone service will operate as normal on Christmas Day from 10:00 to 14:00 for individuals requiring assistance. Miss Reeder stated, “We know very much, particularly over the Christmas period, while the focus tends to be on people getting together with their family and friends, for some people that’s not a reality and it can be a very lonely and isolating time.” The service was established four years ago and operates daily because, as Miss Reeder clarified, “people aren’t just lonely Monday to Friday, nine to five.” It is managed by three part-time female staff members who assess the optimal ways to assist callers and facilitate their integration into the local community. Miss Reeder further commented, “It can be a difficult job as well, but when you’re able to encourage that person to access support ideally as locally as possible to where they live then that’s a really good thing.” Personnel at the Blue Cross animal rehoming centre in Wherstead, located just outside of Ipswich, will perform their regular duties on Christmas Day to guarantee the welfare of all animals. Charles White, the centre’s manager, informed BBC Radio Suffolk that due to a substantial volume of donations this year, the animals will also be given a present. He stated, “We try and keep everything exactly the same in regards to our routine, hence why there are at least between eight and 12 people here on Christmas Day to make sure all of the animals keep their routine, they are all fed, walked, cleaned and looked after properly.” He concluded, “We’re very, very lucky that we’ve got a great team here and the animals come first and foremost above everything else.” For updates on Suffolk news, follow BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content found on external websites. Information regarding our external linking policy is available.