Cautious optimism at the end of a year to forget

But on a cold, wet morning in Bridgnorth, the scars of the past 12 months are clear for all to see. Shuttered shops, closed pubs, the normally bustling High Street a shadow of its former self. Will things ever be the same again? How many of the small businesses forced to close due to the lockdown will reopen when the pandemic is over? How soon will normal life resume?

Stay-at-home mother Sarah Evans, 42, who lives in the town's Listley Street, is hopeful that better times are around the corner, although she thinks some aspects of the Government's timetable may be optimistic.

"I don't think anyone ever imagined we would be going through this commotion, not for this length of time," she says.

She is has mixed feelings about the Government's handling of the pandemic.

"I think it would have been very hard for anyone who was in power," she says.

"There's a lot of good decisions have been made, but sometimes the decisions could have been made sooner, particularly when he was being advised by the scientists.

"But I think the Prime Minister did what he could because it was new, and it was new for all of us, and it was a difficult decision knowing how and when to act in different situations. I think we are much better educated about it now."

Miss Evans says the Government has done a good job with its vaccination programme, and is hopeful some degree of normality will return soon.

"I think the Government is hoping to things will start opening up again at the end of April, but I think it will be a bit longer than that, more like summer," she says.

"I still think it's going to be outside for a lot of things for a long time, I just hope they will allow bigger groups to meet, even if it means wearing PPE. I think the important thing is getting people vaccinated, and getting regular top-ups."

Miss Evans says that while she tries to support local shops, it could be hard for many of the smaller businesses to reopen once restrictions are eased.

Taking a slightly fatalistic view is Elsa McWilliam, 85, who also lives in the town.

"It's got to get better, hasn't it? It can't get any worse," she says.

But despite her apparent cynicism, Mrs McWilliam says the pandemic has not had much of an impact on her life.

"I feel all right, I'm 85 and I'm doing quite well, or so people tell me," she says.

"It hasn't had much effect on me, having to keep myself in. I don't go out very often, anyway, so it doesn't bother me at all."

Like many people in the town, 67-year-old Colin Beesley from Highley, is full of praise for the way the Government has handled the vaccine programme, but feels it should have acted sooner at the start of the pandemic.

He says: "I think it's gone rather well with the appointments, people are getting the jabs, but it will never be back to normal. I think we will be living with this for a long time, it will be like Spanish flu in 1919, it will be with us for a while.

"They should have shut down from day one, like they did in New Zealand. We're an island race, we should have let nobody in."

Mr Beesley, who is retired, says for him the biggest effect of the lockdown has been that he cannot return to his home town of Liverpool. But he says he appreciates that he has suffered far less than many people.

"I'm lucky, I live right out in the sticks, and we don't see anybody anyway," he says. "But it must be terrible for single parents with four kids living in a flat."

Roger Cusworth, 70, thinks the worst is now over.

"I think we're nearing the end, I think the Government has done very well in organising the vaccine, and it is giving people a lot more confidence," he says.

"I think it's been hard for many people, not being able to visit family members, and it has put pressure on a lot of businesses."

Mr Cusworth, who is a property landlord, says many of his tenants have suffered greatly as a result of the lockdown, and has been forced to give a lot of them a rent holiday.

"It's had a big effect on my income," he says.

Despite this, he is generally pleased with the way the Government has handled the crisis, saying he thinks it has probably got the balance about right.

"I think they are doing a good job overall," he says, although he was less impressed by the £37 billion test-and-trace system, which was heavily criticised by the all-party parliamentary watchdog, the public accounts committee, last week.

"Test and trace was a waste of time, it wasn't needed in the first place."

Kevin Williams, who recently retired from running the fruit and vegetable stall at the indoor market, says it came as a big shock when it emerged how serious the threat was 12 months ago.

"The first lockdown gave us a fright, nobody knew quite what was happening," says Mr Williams, is out walking his dog.

"I don't think things are ever going to be the same again, I think people are going to be wearing face masks for a long time.

"It isn't helping the economy, it's frightening people."

David Allen, 73, from Bridgnorth, said he was not in the slightest bit worried, saying that the vaccine had given him confidence, although he was concerned that the rate had begun to tail off in recent weeks.

But he said he was annoyed by people who continued to flout the guidelines.

"They may have the right not to wish to take the vaccination, they also want the right to mix with other people," he says.

"But we know that one in three people are asymptomatic, and you have people who are refusing to take the vaccine, people who are refusing to follow the guidelines, and people who are unknowingly asymptomatic, you know it's going to be spreading."

Mr Allen, who works for a charity which provides support for the elderly, says the Government should have been stricter in its enforcement of the restrictions, although he adds that he has some sympathy with the predicament if found itself in.

"At the start I thought it was Boris being his usual bumbling, shambolic self," he says. "But when I stopped to think that 1918 was the last time we have experienced anything like this, the I knew it would always be a case of learning as we go along, so I'm more measured and more patient now.

"The way they have handled the vaccine has been world leading, the problem has been that there have been two different parties within the Tory Party, with the one wanting to keep the economy running and continuing to trade right across the pandemic."

Mr Allen says his daughter lives in Australia, where the approach was much tougher.

"There they have drones flying over people's gardens to ensure they are complying with the guidelines, the police are much stricter when it comes to stopping people in their cars and asking where they are going, and the fines are quite horrendous," he says.

"I don't know whether the Australian approach would be accepted here, whether people would accept the infringement on their civil liberties."