It’s vital we all play our part to stay on course for midsummer of freedom

THE weather over these last few days has been wonderful. As well as longing to be able to get out and about again we have all been missing the sunshine. The first lockdown we endured was made almost pleasurable because we had such lovely weather. So many of you that could be were in your gardens planting flowers and shrubs and growing vegetables, for some of you, often for the first time.

With restaurants closed the number of people cooking and baking at home grew and with gyms closed and instructions to stay at home we all turned to online exercise.

Back in April last year none of us could have imagined we would still be in any form of lockdown a year later, but here we are.

The Prime Minister said, when he announced the roadmap out of lockdown, that he wanted to make sure that this was irreversible and I know that you want that to be the case too.

On my trips to the local supermarket in Newhall and Swadlincote I have been pleased to speak to residents.

They do want to talk about the lockdown but all express support for it and, although they are desperately looking forward to getting back to normal they appreciate it has to happen cautiously. They also want to talk to me about the vaccination programme to let me know how well it is going and how grateful they are to get the jabs which they know will help to bring this awful situation to an end.

For all of us the temptation as lockdown begins to ease is to forget the rules and that is exactly what we must not do.

Each significant date on the roadmap calendar depends on the infection rate continuing to fall and on hospital admissions and the overall death rate continuing their downward trend.

I am sure I am not alone in being desperate for a haircut and I know many of you are looking forward to sitting outside your local with a pint, able once again to talk to your mates. If those things are to happen we have to continue to follow the rules, it is only for a few more weeks, each step on the roadmap brings us closer to what we all crave, freedom.

I realise for the majority of you reading this you are already doing as you have been asked by the Government and for that I thank you.

However, sadly, some people ignore the rules. Watching the news and reading the papers we all see incidences of crowds of people gathering together, more often than not youngsters, often without masks and not socially distancing.

If you have children or grandchildren I would urge you to stress to them how important it is to stick to the rules for the next 79 days which will take us to June 21, the date we are all longing to reach.

The other important issue is for those people who have had their first vaccination jab to be sure and go for the second. It is the two jabs which will give us all the best protection.

We also need to persuade anyone we know who has not taken up the offer of a jab to book an appointment and have one.

The scare stories are just that, stories. Even though the vaccines were developed so speedily they have gone through all of the necessary checks and are safe. In fact the numbers of people they were tested on was far, far higher than on normal trials because they had so many volunteers.

One big question in my postbag is about the possibility of foreign travel this summer and the Government task force will report on April 12. I can assure everyone that if travel restrictions can be lifted safely I know they will be.

Each significant date on the road map calendar depends on the infection rate continuing to fall.