A lot riding on reaching the end of roadmap

THERE’S a lot riding on the final step of the government’s roadmap to lifting the coronavirus lockdown.

The much-promised June 21 could be a red-letter day for the nation, as the proposal is to lift the last of the social distancing measures and allow us to start our return to normality after months and months of souldestroying restrictions.

For Ashbourne that will mean a green light for a string of events that organisers have been working around the clock to lay on safely.

Ashbourne Festival, Ashbourne Show, Y Not Festival and the Soap Box race are among the summer events that are desperate for good news.

But it could also be a milestone in a more administrative sense.

This week we’ve seen more news from the controversial rabbit farm near Hognaston, and yet another local planning application with the number of objections running into hundreds.

It sits alongside plans to convert a coal yard near Clifton into a travellers’ site as two of the biggest and most controversial applications in recent years.

These planning applications cannot currently be dealt with in public because there is no longer any legislation in place for councillors to decide on them virtually, they’re far too big for planning officers to determine under delegated powers, and the objectors deserve to have the decisions made in public.

But with more than a few doubts being cast on a national level over whether we will be ready to open the country up safely and to ditch social distancing in just under three weeks time, will these plans stay in limbo?

If so, how long for?

In so many ways, and for so many people, the next few weeks will be critical.

Let’s hope the data in Derbyshire continues to point in the right direction.