Jayne Kirkham, Cornwall Councillor for Falmouth Smithick has shared her opinion on the recent government announcement and the easing of lockdown restrictions.

She said that "we all have a part to play" to make sure Falmouth is a safe and clean place to visit if hospitality businesses are to reopen.

Jayne Kirkham said:

"Confusing as it is, the lockdown is changing. The PM talked about hospitality businesses re-opening from July in his speech.

"We all have a part to play here - town managers looking after public spaces in terms of clean stations, signage, road markers etc, businesses and customers managing their spacing well and Cornwall Council assisting and facilitating. Smoothing the way and limiting the bureaucracy."

Just recently Nub News reported that the Falmouth Town team were working on a recovery plan for the town coming out of Coronavirus.

Jayne outlined possible measures that could be considered to help the town including a town delivery service for businesses to engage with, a buy and collect service. Planning public spaces, highways and walkways to allow for social distancing.

She added:

"If businesses need to adopt some measure of social distancing, then that may not be financially viable for them. If a café has to cut two-thirds of its covers, it won't be able to cover its costs. That means that to have anything left of the summer season, we will need to use our outside space.

"Can cafes have tables out the front of their premises, or on quaysides or in car parking areas? Can retail spill out onto the street? Can we use these spaces for click and collect stations or other solutions?

"We may need to relax our red tape on using our outside space. Re-purposing some areas without all the endless form filling. Falmouth town centre is narrow and it is impossible to stay 2 metres apart in some parts when cars are traversing the roads. Air pollution and safety have been so much better with fewer cars on the streets.

"If we can look again at our car parking and find transport solutions, then let's try to make this change work for us after lockdown. Coronavirus is going to change the way we function as a society and an economy for months if not years. We will need to try to adapt to keep our local economy viable as well as keeping us all safe and healthy."