People helping to tackle the coronavirus pandemic can park for free in one of Crawley's car parks.

NHS staff, volunteers and social care staff will not be charged at Orchard Street multi-storey, which is less than five minutes from Crawley Hospital, for the foreseeable future.

To sign up for free parking, staff and volunteers should email parking.services@crawley.gov.uk, external from their work email address with their name, vehicle registration number, telephone number, and the organisation they work for.

Danny Hughes isolated himself after a family member showed coronavirus symptoms.

Enhanced bus services are being introduced in parts of East Sussex to enable key workers to get to work at hospital.

Brighton & Hove Buses will operate an enhanced Sunday service between 30 March and 4 April, with earlier journeys on most routes.

The company says the move is to enable staff to get more easily to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

It added early morning journeys after NHS staff relayed their needs.

Image source, The Observatory Science Centre in Herstmonceux

The Observatory Science Centre in Herstmonceux near Eastbourne has announced it has closed until further notice due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The interactive domed science centre said in a message on its website that it did not know when it will reopen.

It said: “This decision was made in the light of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and recent UK government advice, which our charity has been carefully monitoring and following.

“The safety and well-being of our visitors, staff and volunteers is our absolute priority during this difficult time.”

People who have booked group visits and upcoming events will be contacted when the centre returns to work.

Amanda Akass
Political Editor, BBC South East Today

Image source, PA Media

In his first appearance in the House of Commons since returning from coronavirus isolation, Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle said closing down parliament early without a means of carrying out debates online is "foolhardy".

Hove's Peter Kyle also told MPs he is "extremely concerned" about the implications of Parliament being closed down early.

He said people would appreciate the irony that builders are continuing to work with the sanction of government but that the government is shutting parliament and "stopping our ability to scrutinise in the normal way".

He says normally in times of crisis parliament would be recalled. He is calling for "extraordinary" new measures to be brought in so "we can remotely hold the government to account".

In response the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said parliament is not being closed down, the date of return is set and that hasn't changed.

He claims the business scheduled for the final days is not pressing so it's reasonable to suspend it.

On Monday, for example, they were planning on discussing relief of rates on public toilets. He says it was therefore reasonable to suspend parliament as this business is not essential.

Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell said her office has helped bring five people back to the UK from Cyprus and Spain after they were stranded abroad due to coronavirus.

She also said they were helping four other people in New Zealand, as well as one person in Peru and another constituent in Bali.

However, she said she had not received a request from help from Eastbourne’s ex-Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd who is stuck in New Zealand.

Ms Ansell, the resort’s Conservative MP, said: “Stephen is my constituent and I stand ready to help him, if he would like me to.”

Bob Dale
BBC Live reporter

NHS staff are to be offered free tickets to Brighton and Hove Albion matches when professional football resumes.

The club says it will reserve at least 1,000 tickets for health workers and their families, either at a single match or spread across several fixtures.

Image source, Getty Images

The club is calling on other sides in the Premier League, English Football League and Scottish and Northern Ireland leagues to make similar gestures.

AFC Bournemouth has already said it will.

All football has been suspended until at least 30 April, with the Football Association saying the season could be extended "indefinitely"

Brighton are launching a telephone campaign to check in on elderly fans who are self-isolating because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Brighton girls Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows were sexually assaulted and strangled in 1986.

Rubbish collections have been made a priority as Brighton and Hove City Council helps tackle coronavirus.

At an urgent meeting of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, Labour councillor Anne Pissaridou said a recruitment campaign was under way to keep the streets clean.

Councillor Pissaridou said Cityclean was recruiting temporary staff to keep up with refuse collections, as many staff are off sick.

She said refuse collection had the highest priority, and that missed collections will have to wait until the next scheduled day.

She confirmed the suspension of green waste collections. The city’s two household waste sites in Hove and East Brighton are closed to protect staff.

Image source, Worthing Glamour Club

Residents of a seaside town have been called upon to "summon your antibacterial shields" and stay home to fight coronavirus.

Streaming live on Facebook, Worthing town crier Bob Smytherman, dressed in his full regalia, addressed people in the West Sussex town.

The 52-year-old, who is also a councillor for Worthing Borough Council and West Sussex County Council, boomed: “All ye England engaged in battle against the Covid-19 virus, and that includes all citizens of the world.

“This is a war like no other fought before in our lifetime, or even in history.

“Summon your weapons, your antibacterial shields, your human concern.

“Engage the battle fully and pray for a winning outcome."

The speech was written by one his counterparts in the US and sent to town criers around the world.

Finishing his speech, Mr Smytherman cried: “God bless our frontline warriors against Covid-19, and God save the Queen."

Bob Dale
BBC Live reporter

An elderly couple's online plea for help showed the strength of a community.

Image source, Google

Thirteen residents at a nursing home in Hove have been tested for coronavirus after displaying symptoms.

Oaklands Nursing Home's manager Betti Korder said 13 of its 20 residents have had high temperatures, a cough, or both.

They were tested on Saturday but were told they will have to wait up to six days for results, Ms Korder said.

Seven members of staff have also shown symptoms, but have been told they will not be tested, she added.

Public Health England said it would not comment on individual cases.

Ms Korder said: "A nursing home is very different from a hospital in terms of contact and it’s extremely difficult to isolate someone."

She added she was worried about the fact none of her staff had been tested and one employee has been off work ill for "more than a week".

The Grand Hotel in Brighton will close its doors today until further notice to "help prevent the spread of coronavirus".

Instead, rooms at the East Sussex seafront hotel will be offered to NHS staff.

A statement on the hotel's website says: "We are proud to be playing a part in offering support to our precious NHS and the heroic people within it.

"We are also able to share that we are committing to pay all of our team members their full contracted wages during this period of uncertainty, indefinitely."

A nursing home says 13 of its 20 residents have been tested after showing symptoms of coronavirus.

Image source, Peter Lamb

The leader of Crawley Borough Council has asked the town’s MP, Henry Smith, to call on the government for legal restrictions to help prevent stockpiling.

The council has launched a support network aimed at helping the people most vulnerable to coronavirus receive food, medicine and sanitary goods.

In the ‘biggest response to a civil emergency in the history of the New Town’, leader Peter Lamb has asked organisations and volunteers to step up and offer their services.

He said: ”I have written to our local MP to ask that he lobby government to introduce legal restrictions to prevent stockpiling in order to back up their efforts and to provide the military presence required to ensure that those restrictions are followed.

“In the meantime, we are looking to use the council’s own Civil Enforcement Officers to help maintain order.”

Mr Smith said security would be made available where needed, either through police or military personnel, to help retailers enforce limits on key items.

He added: “I would appeal to people during this understandably anxious Covid-19 period to think of others less able to shop, such as key workers, plus isolated ill and elderly.

“In turn, those minority of retailers that have hiked prices to take advantage of this crisis will be reported and acted upon.”

Image source, BBC News

Former Eastbourne MP Stephen Lloyd has tweeted that he is “stuck” in New Zealand, where he has been holidaying with his partner.

Mr Lloyd said Singapore was not accepting transit flights so they could not fly home.

He added: "Spent ages on the phone to consulate. No answer. I know there are an awful lot of Brits in the same boat. I hope UK Gov sorting repatriation."

New Zealand has become the latest country to announce a full lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.

All public venues will close over the next 48 hours, as will most shops, except supermarkets and chemists.

Participants of cancelled events are choosing to carry on with their challenges alone.

One beach has been forced to shut, while a police commissioner calls for arcades to close.

The singer famed for entertaining troops during World War Two calls on the country to pull together.