Independent traders will survive if we use them

WITH many more “non-essential” shops and businesses due to emerge from lockdown on Monday, I support the Henley Standard’s revived Think Local campaign.

If we want these traders to survive, including the many independent retailers which we are fortunate to have in Henley, it is essential that we start spending money with them again.

There will inevitably be an initial period of striving to find the right level of operation in order to strike a balance between staying open and preserving social distancing.

However, the easing of the restrictions is to be welcomed because it is justified by the daily figures. While every death is a tragedy, we recently saw the lowest toll since the lockdown began. This is a promising sign that cautiously ending it is the right thing, although there will always be a certain element of “suck it and see”.

Aside from financial relief, the main thing businesses wanted was advance notice of the re-opening date and the Government was able to provide this. Having been closed for some time, owners needed notice to get ready again and the feedback suggests they are happy with our communication. They now look forward to the return of something approaching normal.

The key to keeping coronavirus under control will be social distancing, which I don’t think should be difficult. There are many measures which can be taken, for example, in Parliament we have markers on the ground to make clear where people should stand.

As a community, we must all take independent traders under our wing and look at what they are offering or we could lose a vital aspect of our town centre and end up with only national operators.

There is a place for the likes of Amazon and, of course, it was being used tremendously even before lockdown, but if we want to inspect the goods we intend to buy we must return to the shops.

The question of social distancing has also made headlines in relation to the Black Lives Matter protests which took place in various cities and here in Henley.

Elsewhere, I’m afraid participants haven’t shown much social distancing and calls from organisers to improve have come too little and too late. It is incredibly selfish because it could affect the participants’ families and anyone else they’re in contact with.

I have no problem with peaceful protests but some of the behaviour we have witnessed is unacceptable.

The death of George Floyd in America was a terrible wrong but Britain is a different country, both generally and in terms of policing specifically. We consistently rank highly among the European nations for tackling racism, though of course there is more to accomplish.

British policing is conducted by consent and one need only consider the lockdown to see this in action. In many cases where fines could have been issued, officers rightly relied on discussion and persuasion instead of taking a heavy-handed approach.

In response to questions about when the “test and trace” system will be fully operational in the constituency, I do not yet know but the starting point must be to introduce it in areas with the highest rate of covid-19 infections.

The prevalence within South Oxfordshire is just 0.3 per cent. This is a very low figure and if the scheme is to work nationally then it must be done right. There are so many factors which affect whether there will be a second wave and it is impossible to say for certain that we will not experience this, but test and trace will be an essential means of monitoring the situation. However, social distancing remains key to ensure it does not happen and that another lockdown is not imposed as a result.