This is what The Scarborough News readers think about easing the lockdown

Today (Tuesday May 12) marks 50 days into the coronavirus lockdown, and readers of The Scarborough News have had their say on how and when restrictions should be eased.

Our lockdown survey, published across this title and 150 others across the UK last week, has had a great response.

It gives an insight into how the coronavirus crisis has impacted people in Scarborough and what they would like to see happen in the coming weeks and months.

In total we asked readers 25 questions on their attitude towards the lockdown.

Of these questions five focused on how lockdown restrictions might be eased - and today we can reveal how people in Scarborough answered.

The majority, 48 per cent, of The Scarborough News readers who completed our survey said they felt ‘very concerned’ about going to public places such as shops, bars, restaurants and cinemas as lockdown is eased.

By comparison, on a national level, 41 per cent answered ‘slightly concerned’, 37 cent answered ‘very concerned’, 12 per cent answered ‘not very concerned’ and 10 percent answered ‘not at all concerned’.

In a document released on Monday detailing the government’s Covid-19 recovery strategy, it said that the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) was examining whether, when and how it can safely change the regulations around family contact between households but did not provide a timeframe.

However, for those who took part in the survey, a majority of The Scarborough News readers, 64 per cent, said visits to family and friends, should be given the highest level of priority when restrictions are eased.

Following that 47 per cent thought re-opening workplaces should be given the highest level of priority and 45% thought more mourners at funerals should.

We also asked people which of the following - garden centres, DIY stores, fast food restaurants, takeaway coffee chains and electrical stores - they would be most keen to visit if they were reopened in the near future, with social distancing measures in place.

Most respondents said they were keen to visit garden centres, with electrical stores receiving the smallest number of votes.

When asked how well they thought the UK Government had handled the coronavirus crisis, 18 per cent of our readers said ‘very well’, 37 per cent said ‘quite well’, 18 per cent said ‘not very well’, while 25 per cent stated ‘not well at all’.

The national average, by comparison, was 12% for ‘very well’, 34% for ‘quite well’, 24% for ‘not very well’ and 28% for ‘not at all well’.

Since Boris Johnson’s annoucnement on Sunday evening, much of the critcism levied at the Government has been over the clarity of the new Stay Alert message.

Prior to this change, when asked how clear the UK Government’s lockdown guidance had been so far, the majority of our readers who took part in the survey responded ‘quite clear’.

The national average on this issue was: 30% said ‘very clear’, 35% said ‘quite clear’, 22% said ‘not very clear’ and 14% said ‘not at all clear’.

Throughout this week we will publish online more results of what local people had to say in our lockdown survey.

The lockdown survey

Alongside 150 titles across JPI Media, we asked our readers to complete a 25 question online survey last week to find out more about your opinions on the lockdown, and how to end it.

This was before the most recent announcements about the road out of the lockdown by the UK Government. The survey received more than 23,000 responses across the country. For The Scarborough News, 414 readers completed the survey.