MP Caroline Ansell has toured Eastbourne over the last few days to show her support for businesses and organisations following the easing of lockdown restrictions.
In a busy schedule, she visited two government-funded Holiday Activities Food Programmes in Sovereign Harbour and Grove Road.
This is the first time such schemes have been run in the town for children in receipt of term time free school meals and they aim to deliver healthy holiday food and enriching activities. Summer and Christmas programmes will follow this year.
Caroline went to Langney Shopping Centre to catch up with retailers who opened their doors again on Monday. She met with Harrison Dann - a young entrepreneur who has opened The Toy Stop and who told her that government covid support schemes had been brilliant.
Another location visited was the library where she chatted with staff and local residents who were all delighted to be back.
Caroline also had a drink outside at Bibendum in Grange Road and visited Nuts Hair salon in Grove Road, which was fully booked.
“There’s a great buzz in Eastbourne and relief from retailers and pub and restaurant owners that they can reopen and get back to serving customers,” said Caroline.
“It was great to meet with owners, staff and local people to hear their thoughts on the lockdown easing, the future, the government’s covid support and how well the vaccination programme is going.
“There’s really good news at the moment about infection rates and we remain on course with the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.
“I am really confident Eastbourne is going to have a really good summer season. There’s massive staycation opportunities and pent-up demand to go out and take back a slice of normality.
“I will be doing all I can to ensure everyone can enjoy Eastbourne safely and I will be feeding back comments and concerns to ministers so we can get the best possible outcomes.
“We still need to be cautious and to keep to the rules but, I believe the most difficult times are behind us.”
