Breathe new life into our local High Streets and towns

Let me begin this week by congratulating all those A Level and BTEC students from Brentwood and Ongar who go the results they needed to get into the University, college or apprenticeship they wanted.

News just in from Essex County Council about the decision to lift the closure of Brentwood High Street:

"In July a key section of Brentwood High Street was closed to most traffic to enable safer social distancing for people in the town centre.

Four months after the formal start of the lockdown designed to stop the exponential growth of the spread of COVID-19 and to stop the NHS being overwhelmed by people needing intensive respiratory care, the country is making progress - progress with caution, but progress nonetheless. 

Each week I am able to report in this column further steps in the Government’s roadmap to gradually reopen businesses and community facilities which had to close during the long, hot, weeks of total lockdown.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has provided a much-needed boost for tourism and hospitality businesses in Brentwood and Ongar, as part of his Summer Economic Update to kickstart the economy post-coronavirus.

I have no doubt the High Streets and town centres of Brentwood, Ongar, Shenfield, North Weald, Ingatestone, West Horndon and Abridge will be busier this weekend as the latest lifting of lockdown restrictions allows restaurants, pubs, libraries and churches to reopen – albeit under strict COVID se

The Government has announced tourism and visitor attractions will reopen in England from 4 July.
Up to 600 businesses in Brentwood and Ongar will benefit, following local MP’s support for reopening.

The guidance on keeping safe and alert against the deadly virus, COVID-19, has been cautiously relaxed this week with non-essential retail shops allowed to open, and single person households allowed to form a “bubble” with another household.

Great news from Brentwood Borough Council  - well done to all those who have done such a superb job in making sure local businesses get the support they need to see them through the hardest times of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

Post Office Limited has been in touch about the current temporary closure of Ingatestone Post Office and what is being done to help local customers: