Jayne Kirkham, Cornwall Councillor for Falmouth Smithick gives an overview of the Easter weekend and praises the hard work that is going on in the community right now to support each other.

Last Thursday I had a conversation with one of our Falmouth police officers who was concerned about people not abiding by the social distancing rules over the Easter weekend. He was worried enough to raise the possibility of shutting Falmouth's beaches.

Over the long weekend, other than a couple of shopping trips to pick up supplies for people locally, I went out only on daily exercise walks with my son. He's 14 and over the Easter holiday lockdown, he had begun to merge with the internet to the extent that I didn't know where the virtual teenager ended and the real-life one began.

We live down near Cliff Road, so I used my daily walk to have a look and see if the police officer's concerns had been realised. I posted the results on Facebook. They were obviously only a snapshot, but despite an unseasonably beautiful Easter weekend, the beaches were pretty much empty, other than people using them to exercise.

Falmouth was staying home.

I've been so impressed with my fellow Falmouth residents over the last few weeks. People have set up neighbourhood groups to help and registered with Volunteer Cornwall (e-mail to [email protected] or phone 01872 266988) and Falmouth Age Concern (call 01326 313620).

They have worked out how to make protective equipment for our key workers when we haven't had what we asked for from central government (big shout out to Sam Lanyon and Falmouth School for making hundreds of visors and Cornwall Scrubs & Masks for sewing like demons).

They have volunteered to cook, package up and deliver hot food to people who cannot get out (Falmouth Food Co-operative - 01326 567526, the Salvation Army - 01326 315272, and numerous local businesses).

They have checked on their neighbours and tried to make sure that no one falls through the net when the 'shielding' system has been slow to pick up and get going.

And they, you, have stayed home. It seems a strange way to tackle a global threat, sitting at home, but it brings its own problems. Loneliness is accentuated.

People are sometimes trapped with people they don't want to be with, or kept apart from the people they do. Calls to the Samaritans (phone 116123) and domestic violence lines (eg. Safer Futures on 0300 7774777) have jumped. And it looks like we have a while yet to go until we get the testing for the disease that we need and the curve of new infections flattens off.

If we have to be socially isolated anywhere, Falmouth is the best place I can think of to be. Stay safe. Stay home. Save lives.