Coronavirus has not gone away. The latest weekly figures for Ealing for the period 17 to 23 August has seen a significant rise in cases from 39 last week to 71 this week – that’s 20.8 per 100,000 of the population; above the London rate of 12.7 and the average for England of 11.9.

Now, that’s not sufficient for a local lockdown yet, but it is concerning
that we’ve had this consistent rise for over a month now in new cases. Many of the new cases are among younger adults who have been travelling or enjoying the release from lockdown and that’s perfectly understandable, but we do need everyone to redouble their efforts to follow the rules, in order to protect our loved ones, and friends, especially the more vulnerable.

So let’s keep at least a metre away from those not in our households, let’s wear face coverings in shops and on public transport, and that means covering your nose and your mouth, self-isolate, and get a test if you have COVID-19 symptoms, a temperature, a new dry cough a loss or a change of smell or taste.

We must do more to stop the spread of the virus so we can keep Ealing safe. As I say, it has not gone away.

On another subject, low traffic neighbourhoods are continuing to be implemented and I know they are generating strong feelings both for and against and, unfortunately, this week we have seen some people step over the line and engage in criminal behaviour by vandalising and removing bollards and barriers and engaging in dangerous criminal actions. Now we can’t tolerate this and we’ve reported these incidents to the police and we will prosecute individuals caught doing this if we have that evidence to do so.

Low traffic neighbourhoods are a six-month trial and until we put them in and have the bollards in place, we can’t start that trial; and, yes, they are a trial, we’re wanting to see how this works and the whole six months is a consultation. So please be patient, it is difficult and challenging when these things are first put in, it requires a period of bedding in so I’d ask people to control their passions both for and against.

Now, next week children in Ealing go back to school and we’ve been working hard with schools to make sure this is done as safely as possible
and everything is done to mitigate any issues of safety with our children and we need as many children as possible to walk, cycle or scoot to school.
With limited capacity on public transport, it is irresponsible to use your car
if it’s possible to walk, cycle or scoot to school.

So, I’m really hoping people will make that extra effort to make sure that all our young people are safe and if they can walk to school, cycle to school or scoot that they do so.

Finally, enjoy the bank holiday weekend; if you are celebrating the virtual carnival have a good time; and thank you once again for everything that people are doing to keep Ealing safe.