This will be my last Herald column of 2020, a year to which I am sure everyone will be bidding ’good riddance.’ By the time I write again in the New Year we may find ourselves in a different COVID tier subject to stricter regulations, many more people will have been vaccinated and shock horror we may even know where we are on Brexit.
Rarely have we gone into a more uncertain festive period, and in wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and hopefully peaceful (and surely better) New Year can I also urge people not to let their guard down and to continue to be vigilant. The last thing we want is to have to go into a third national lockdown period following the Christmas bubble arrangement and that relies on everyone not throwing caution to the wind until at least we have rolled out the vaccine extensively. There will be plenty of opportunities to celebrate properly as we emerge from the spring in 2021.
Can I particularly send my thanks and good wishes to all those in the NHS and care settings who will be working over the Christmas period and missing out on the opportunity to bubble with their own family and friends. I know many others will be volunteering over the next few weeks to look after people living on their own and unable to join Christmas Day lunches and such like making their loneliness even more difficult. If you know someone in that position, then a socially distanced knock on the door and sharing some of the Christmas largesse could go a long way.
One thing that is certain is that apparently it is obligatory for me to join Santa’s sleigh dressed up as an elf when helping distribute Christmas lunches and goodie bags for care home workers on Christmas Eve Thank you to all those who have contributed. No doubt there will be a few snatched photos and an ensuing caption contest on social media!
Thank you also to the now more than 1500 local people who have completed my survey on the Upper Shoreham Road pop-up cycle lane. We are compiling the results now and will be publishing them in full next week together with my last constituency e-newsletter of the year. In the meantime, the temporary lane will stay in place over the holiday period before being take out in the New Year and we see whether and how it can be replaced.
Thank you to everyone who has stepped up to the plate in this most difficult of years and done their bit for the local community. The volunteer effort across Adur and Worthing has been truly impressive and humbling and always makes me proud to represent such a wonderful and caring constituency. So have a Happy Christmas one and all but remember ‘Tis the Season to be jolly…. careful!’