Vaccine and low rates will help town to ‘flourish’
MOST RESIDENTS AND BUSINESS OWNERS SAY THEY HAVE ‘ALWAYS FELT SAFE’
SHOPPERS and traders in a Nottinghamshire town where Covid cases have been “suppressed” say they have “always felt safe” in the centre.
Sutton Central and Leamington, which covers Sutton-in-ashfield town centre, has recorded low week-on-week Covid cases to the point where its infection rate is “suppressed”.
This means that, across a sevenday period, fewer than three Covid cases were recorded among the population.
The data comes just weeks after the town centre kicked back into life on April 12, when pubs, shops and barbers reopened their doors.
And people working and shopping in the town centre say the return to normality has felt “safe”, with people who spent time in Sutton during lockdown also having no concerns at the time.
Jason Parr, 47, runs J&K Parr Butchers in Sutton and says he has “felt safe” throughout the pandemic, with his business remaining open in lockdown.
He spoke about how there were now more people stood around chatting in the centre but he believes many elderly residents were going “off to the coast”.
He said: “I think a lot of people around here are getting away, going to the coast where they have caravans.
“Since shops reopened there has been more people milling about, seeing their mates and standing to talk in the street.
“I didn’t know about Sutton’s low cases but then I’ve felt safe anyway, I’ve never felt unsafe throughout it all.”
The Central Sutton and Leamington area of the town once had the highest infection rate in the county, at more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 people in January.
But infection rates have been driven down to almost zero in the most recent figures to April 24, while Ashfield’s overall rate is now around 17 cases per 100,000 people.
One shopper in the town thinks lower rates and vaccine numbers will help the town “flourish” again for the rest of 2021.
Nancy Harrison, 61, who was visiting the town from Kirkby, said: “It makes me feel safer when I’m out and about. It will help the town too in the long run, if more people get tested and vaccinated and cases go down we will be OK.
“Once people start to feel safer going out, shops will flourish. More people will come into town and I hope it will give the town a boost.” Another worker in the town, Dave Sanders, also said he didn’t feel unsafe in Sutton. But the 57-year-old, who regularly stands on Low Street advertising his business, thinks more support is needed for traders. “I have always felt safe, but then I’ve been slightly sceptical about it all,” he said. “Personally I think it’s gone past a point now and that the Government and the council should do something to help out traders.
“I’ve seen more people in Sutton than compared to during lockdown, but it’s not necessarily the clientele shops need.”
Theresa Hodgkinson, Ashfield District Council’s director of place and communities, added: “We understand people’s anxieties around being out and about again, but we want to reassure residents that we have measures in place to ensure that their experience in our town centres is a positive one. The message is clear, Ashfield is open for business.”