Well….. the High Street is back open again. The vast majority of traders and services are back behind the counters, including the dry cleaners and laundrettes, as well as the hair-dressers and beauty salons.
In addition, not just the main High Street, but also “over the bridge” on the junction of Laleham Road and Sheep Walk, the shops and services there have also been doing their best at this time. The same can be said for the shopping parade in Upper Halliford.
The takeaways – Italian Pizza Experts, Ivory Tusk, Lemon Grass Chinese, Thai Bite, Jacks Fish ‘n’ Chips, School of Spice, Mumbai Square, Eastern Pearl, Golden Grill, Tasty Grill….and the Red Lion …. all are at your disposal too. They have been a godsend to many over these months…and they’ve been working so hard to provide a service – to collect or to deliver!
All the pubs are now doing business … mostly full – time … but with some social distance measures in place. Likewise the restaurants are open and equipped .. and waiting for your business too!
Hopefully we are all using them as much as we can to help them all on their “road to recovery”. We are in tough times – as we see every day from the papers, radio and TV news, business is not picking up so quickly for Britain’s High Streets and particularly our pubs and restaurants. We must do what we can to help and give our locals our business!
Our hotels in the square – Warren Lodge and The Anchor – are not yet open. We await to see when that date may be, but they are af-fected, like all hotels, with a major problem regarding bookings. The Holiday Inn is functioning normally, it seems.
Personally, I feel we have reached this point in time when we now need to push forward positively, back to some sort of normality, for both the country and locally. We need to get Britain and our local industries and businesses, not to mention our schools, back on their feet and, taking the necessary precautions, forge our way back to full functionality, surely.
This lockdown, this enforced break from normal working, has made life hard (and sad) for many but there have been some positive effects too. We have all seen another facet of life – a fitter life, perhaps, with all those walking and cycling endeavours undertaken …even if under duress sometimes! For many, the lockdown has enhanced a healthy life (less pollution – no planes!) and, perhaps it has helped us to focus on closer family values , with those who we live with particularly.
SO, we all wish ourselves a full recovery from this episode, in all ways, and I hope it may have instilled a more positive view of life to come, and what really matters. That includes more LOCAL shopping and using more LOCAL services (like the Library -when it re-opens) as much as we can.
by Carl Phillips