'The new normal' - How life in Sheffield could look after lockdown is eased

Soberingly, it could take many months or even years for the freedoms everyone enjoyed in January 2020 to be fully reinstated. Instead Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who deputised for Mr Johnson when the PM was taken ill with Covid-19, has warned that people will need to get used to a ‘new normal’, with social restrictions required for ‘some time’.

The form this will take has not been spelled out in detail – but politicians and others have hinted at ways the lockdown could be eased.

This is what life could look and feel like in Sheffield soon.

Shops and non-essential businesses

Places like Fargate and Meadowhall could be coming back to life in the not too distant future. However, Mr Raab has indicated that retailers and other companies may need to change how they work, bringing in measures similar to those seen in supermarkets and other essential shops that have stayed open – such as rules to keep workers and customers at least two metres apart, one-way systems in aisles, plastic screens at tills and the availability of hand sanitiser.

A trip to John Lewis, Next or M&S will feel very different. The British Retail Consortium has advised clothes shops to consider closing and restricting access to toilets and changing rooms.

There are likely to be separate entrances and exits, and contactless card payments will be encouraged, alongside increased cleaning and hygiene. There may also be limits on the number of shoppers who can browse at any one time.

John Lewis in particular has revealed a blueprint for a phased reopening, first including only stores with large car parks – which would seem to cover its shop in Barker's Pool – so staff and customers don’t need to rely on public transport.

Factories

Facilities such as Boeing’s £40 million factory at the Sheffield Business Park closed temporarily when the coronavirus crisis worsened. But carmakers including Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan have announced that production will gradually resume, with social distancing measures in place, at their plants elsewhere in the country.

Output at factories would probably be pared back to start with – in Germany, Volkswagen’s capacity at its Wolfsburg site will be around 10 to 15 per cent initially, reaching around 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels after a week. VW has brought in extra hygiene measures; staff need to take their temperature and change into their overalls at home. There are more markings on the factory floor explaining how much distance to keep from other people, and workers have been allowed extra time to clean their tools and surfaces.

Restaurants, cafes and pubs

So many people are eagerly awaiting their first post-lockdown pint, whether it is at one of Sheffield’s characterful independent pubs or a local Wetherspoons. But whether pubs, and dining venues, will be among the first non-essential businesses allowed to reopen is a moot point, given their reliance on atmosphere and the need for a sizeable number of customers to stay afloat. Austria and Italy have announced that such establishments will return from May and June respectively – in the UK, Government adviser Professor Robert Dingwall told Radio 4 last week that beer gardens should reopen if social distancing could be enforced.

Pret A Manger’s reopened cafes in London give an indication of what people could expect at its Fargate site – only five or six people are allowed in at a time, perspex screens separate customers and staff at tills, and there are markings on the floor showing the two-metre distance. Only 11 items are on the menu and purchases are for takeaway only.

Schools

From Sheffield Park Academy to Hunters Bar Infant School, secondaries and primaries in Sheffield have been shut for weeks to all but the children of key workers. Mr Raab has said it is ‘inconceivable’ classrooms will reopen as they were before lockdown; more outdoor activities have been suggested, and social distancing will probably be needed during lessons to keep pupils apart.

In Scotland, the idea of limits on class sizes has been put forward. "Classrooms may have to be redesigned to allow social distancing, so maybe not all children can go back to, and be at, school at the same time," said Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

"Do we have to take classes and divide them into two, where half of the class is there one week and the other half another week?" Ms Sturgeon said. "Or one half in the morning and the other in the afternoon?"

Germany plans to reopen schools gradually from May 4. Officials there have drawn up guidelines that include spacing between desks, breaks at staggered times, better hand-washing facilities and supplies of disinfectant. In Denmark certain year groups have been returning to nurseries and schools, while other students must carry on working from home.

Construction

Despite the lockdown, progress has been made on the latest blocks of Sheffield’s Heart of the City II scheme, while construction has continued at a reduced rate on Sheffield University's new social sciences building on the edge of Broomhill, where contractor BAM has been following Public Health England guidelines that state workers must be at least two metres apart and wash their hands often.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey is to restart operations in May, ‘in compliance with strict social distancing requirements’.

Chief executive Pete Redfern said last week: "We are now confident that we have clear plans and processes in place so we can safely start back on site in a phased way."

The Construction Leadership Council now says that, where workers are required to work within two metres of each other, they should ‘work side by side, or facing away from each other, rather than face to face’. When this is not feasible, workers should ‘keep this to 15 minutes or less where possible’.

Museums and galleries

Sites such as Weston Park Museum and the Graves Gallery are waiting for the green light to return after they closed completely to visitors to slow the spread of Covid-19. In Berlin, museums are reopening on May 4 – precautions there include reduced visitor capacity and more frequent cleanings. Italy and Belgium plan to open museums again too next month – in Belgium, face masks must be worn in public by everyone over the age of 12; citizens receive one free mask each from the Government.

Festivals and major events

Tramlines, as it stands, is still scheduled to go ahead in Hillsborough Park at the end of July, although ticketholders have been assured they will receive a full refund if it is cancelled. Sheffield University is proposing a ‘physical and virtual’ Festival of the Mind in September, while the Doc/Fest has moved some of its programme online and plans to hold screenings in autumn. The Off the Shelf literary festival is being arranged as usual for October, but perhaps with a smaller number of venues.

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