ON Monday, we took a significant step on the roadmap to recovery and out of lockdown with non-essential shops, hairdressers, beauticians and outdoor hospitality re-opening their doors to the public.

After months of lockdown, the ease of restrictions has been such positive news for local businesses and now is the best time to support our community by shopping local and supporting independent businesses in Crewe.

With approximately 3,400 people hitting our local high streets in Crewe and Nantwich on Monday alone, it is clear to see that people are eager to get back out and get spending on our high streets, a positive sign for our community.

This week, like many of you, I have been visiting local shops and hairdressers and chatting with their owners about their businesses and their plans as they come out of lockdown and re-open their doors.

I visited The Dance Place in Victoria street in Crewe. It is such a great example of a local independent business that has been serving Crewe for years and has customers from all over the North West.

They have been looking forward to opening their doors to dancers and were excited to see customers in their shop again. Whether you are a dancer already or looking to take up a new post-lockdown hobby, I would recommend visiting and making the most of their expert advice. You can't try on dance shoes online!

This positive step for shops and the hospitality sector has only been able to take place due to the fast roll-out of the vaccine nationally and locally.

Over 40 million people have been vaccinated in the UK and everyone over 50 has been offered the vaccine, a massive achievement for this country. This is all a testament to the hard work and dedication of our fantastic National Health Service and the brilliant health staff and volunteers across the country.

Although I encourage residents to get out and support our local businesses it is important that we don't reverse the excellent progress we have made in keeping the infection rates down. There are still millions of people unvaccinated.

I know it can be hard, but I would encourage everyone to stick with the road map. Every month we are getting our freedoms back so I hope people can be patient! Meeting friends and family indoors is not far off now.

In the meantime I hope you are enjoying the easing of lockdown, whether that be having a pint in a local beer garden, seeing family outdoors or visiting shops on our high streets.