City’s former mayor publishes letters written during crisis
Richard Plowman, Mayor of Chichester throughout the worst of the pandemic, has brought together the open letters which he wrote to the city during the crisis.
They have been published by Chichester City Council as Covid Chronicles – 2020-21: The Open Letters of Chichester’s Mayor.
Written by Richard, they have been edited by John Coldstream and have been brought to print with special help from Gareth Bowen.
“When the whole pandemic started, we were sitting down with the town clerk wondering what we could do,” Richard recalls. “We knew for instance that West Sussex County Council would look after the people that needed shielding and so on and we knew that the district would look after the homeless.
“But there was a group of people, the ordinary men and women in the middle, that needed supporting.
“We sat down and talked to various people and got advice, and we felt that the best thing was to bring together all the voluntary organisations which we did as the Chichester Community Network. That worked really well and we were really pleased with it.
“But obviously the other thing was looking after people’s mental well-being. Over a period of time that was going to be as important as the physical side of things, and so I thought what if I wrote an open letter.
“We thought it would be a good idea – and we thought it would only be a couple of letters becauseBoriswassayingitwould all be over before long.”
But the pandemic hung around–andthelettersmounted in number. From the start, Richard took his inspiration from the celebrated Letter from America radio series by Alistair Cooke.
“It was Cooke reacting to what was going on, and I felt that it needed to be that kind of style, that it needed to be personal and that it needed to be encouraging and uplifting.
“A lot of the information comingoutwasquitedepressing and I felt people needed a lift, and as time went on I was able to include perhaps a little bit more humour.
“It wasreallytolift.Itwasabout givingreassurance.ButIdothink we all went through some fairly bad moments.
“I think the worst were January, just after Christmas when it was a real race between the vaccines and the infection, when we had all been looking forward to Christmas and it hadn’t happened.
“All that was dashed, and those dark months of January and February are bad enough anyway.
“And that was when it was important to offer encouragement and to say that the pandemic will be over some day, that we have just got to keep on following the rules.”
The book is available from the city council and also from bookshops for £5, with profits from the sale of the book going to the Second Chance fund in Chichester.