It’s here. At last. The start of reopening. We can get our hair cut, try on clothes in a shop before we buy them and, yes, go to the pub (but wrap up warm!).
We’ve been here before of course, as we’ve emerged from previous lockdowns, tier restrictions and what-have-you-s. But this time feels different. It’s not just that the latest lockdown happened in the long, dark winter months, or that we’re all so weary after a full year of pandemic. This feels different because now there’s hope. The vaccine means this ought to be the last time we take this journey, and good riddance to all that.
The feeling is captured in a rather beautiful film by local filmmaker Sally Low. It’s about Weston coming back to life as 14 of our local shops prepare to re-open (it’s on the SuperWeston facebook page) and, if you haven’t seen it, it’s three-and-a-quarter minutes you won’t regret.
It’s a useful reminder of what getting back to normal will mean for stores or local firms and the people they employ. It’s particularly important because, like High Streets everywhere, central Weston was fighting a battle against online shopping and out-of-town shopping malls before anyone had ever heard of Coronavirus. Lockdown gave online retail a huge push forward and no-one really knows how we will use High Streets from now on. Will we rush back to bricks and mortar town centre shops, or not? We stopped a massive expansion at Cribbs Causeway that would have taken almost £40million from central Weston a few years back, but Sally Low’s film brings our town centre to life: the sounds and the sights, the architecture and beautiful buildings, the people and care they put into the coffee they serve or passion for the products they plan to sell.
So let’s shop local and enjoy normality again. It can’t come soon enough!