'Great news for schools, children and parents - but businesses need to open sooner': Harborough council leader's views ahead of the Prime Minister's easing of lockdown speech

Harborough council leader Phil King is backing Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he gears up this afternoon to unveil the nation’s vital escape route out of the Covid national lockdown.

Cllr King said it will be “fantastic” to see thousands of youngsters across Harborough return to school on Monday March 8 for the first time in many months as the Premier sets out his long-awaited 60-page roadmap.

But the Conservative council chief admitted he “can’t quite understand” why it’s set to take until the middle of April at the earliest to reopen non-essential High Street shops, hairdressers and pubs.

“Thousands of parents, carers and children in Harborough will be delighted that our schools will be reopening on March 8.

“So many children have been missing out on their social development, playing with their mates and going into their classrooms every day.

“It’s a huge positive that schools will be back open – there’s been so much intense pressure on parents for so long,” Cllr King told the Harborough Mail.

“I don’t want to come out and criticise the Government because they have such a tricky tightrope to walk here.

“On the one hand we don’t want the NHS to fall down if hospital cases of coronavirus start to go back up again if we reopen too fast.

“But on the other hand we don’t want the rest of society to fall down either.

“A lot of people are suffering mentally, economically and socially.

“We have had serious delays in the diagnosis and treatment of such serious illnesses as cancers and heart disease.

“So there’s a lot of fall-out from this terrible pandemic.

“At the moment, the pressure on the NHS is diminishing.

“But the impact on our wider society is increasing,” said Cllr King.

“I can’t see why our shops and wider hospitality sector cannot reopen sooner.

“It does seem to be dragged out.

“We want to see our local businesses and retail economy in Harborough reopen as soon as it is safe to do so.

“Some will wonder why it is apparently taking until at least April to open again.

“I can’t quite understand why that’s the case,” said Cllr King.

“But we have had about 135 new cases of Covid-19 in Harborough in the last seven days or so alone.

“That’s still ahead of where we were last summer.

“So we do have to continue to be careful and sensible.

“Because it would be a total disaster if we start opening up and then we all have to go back into lockdown again.

“And I’ll be very interested to find out what extra cash support is to be handed out to our struggling businesses and hard-up councils such as ours.

“But we have a clear direction of travel and we are heading in the right direction.”

Harborough MP Neil O’Brien told the Mail this afternoon: “It’s massively important for national morale that schools are to reopen on March 8.

“The fact that two households will be able to meet up again after so long apart will also be hugely welcomed by millions of people across the country.

“But it is sensible that we have to wait a little while before stepping up to the next level of opening back up again.

“This is going to be a very gradual process,” said Conservative MP Neil.

“It’s certainly not going to be one big bang.

“We just can’t afford to risk reopening back up too quickly and going back to square one – people’s morale wouldn’t be able to take that.

“My constituents in Harborough are telling me that they want to be cautious and take it step by step.

“We have now vaccinated about a third of all adults against Covid and the vaccination programme’s going really well.

“But the coronavirus will take off again given the chance – and we simply can’t afford to let that happen.

“We have to be ruled by the scientific data here rather than dates.

“We have to continue to make progress here and go forward – but not too fast.”

Cllr Phil Knowles, who leads the Liberal Democrats on Harborough council, said: “It’s going to be fascinating to look at the real detail of what Boris Johnson has to say.

“We cannot lose sight of the scientific and medical advice here – we’ve got to be guided by that.

“It could all rapidly unravel if we get ahead of ourselves.

“The vaccination rollout is fantastic and it’s going extremely successfully,” said Cllr Knowles.

“But there are still huge numbers of people waiting for their first dose.

“So while we all want to come out of this lockdown as soon as we can we still have to maintain our social distance, keep washing our hands and wear face coverings.

“The Government has to continue to maintain financial support for local businesses, self-employed workers and councils.

“Too many very worried people are still falling through the cracks and struggling very badly.

“Too many shattered businesses are teetering on the brink.

“And we are sitting on the edge of a mental health tsunami with so many people suffering badly.

“So the sooner we can all start to see each other and inter-act again the better – while combatting and defeating the threat posed by Covid at the same time.”