As we all know, the high street has begun its cautious reopening and in Frodsham local residents have thoroughly enjoyed returning to their favourite shops, restaurants and hair salons.

But when all the initial shopping days, beer garden bookings and hair appointments are over, how can we continue to support Frodsham's businesses and aid their recovery from the pandemic?

Frodsham Nub Voice has found that our volunteers believed it important to use social media and word of mouth to recommend local shops and restaurants to the wider community, writing reviews, sharing pictures and engaging with businesses' Facebook page posts.

Meanwhile, bad reviews should be avoided, according to several Nub Voice volunteers, one of which said: "Our businesses have had enough to deal with without getting negative publicity. Complaints should be directed to the business concerned."

Currently, a failsafe way of attracting customers to hospitality venues is to maximise their outdoor spaces, and another person said: "I would be strongly in favour of using some of the parking spaces on Main Street as 'parklets' to allow outdoor seating.

"You could even have table service for some of the restaurants. Artisan Green and the new [Main Street Kitchen] could really benefit from this."

Another way of promoting Frodsham and Helsby as go-to locations for shopping and leisure would be to encourage visits from people based further afield, as was pointed out by one of our respondents.

"I think the Town Council, with help from Cheshire West and Chester, should be looking at ways of promoting Frodsham outside of the town," they said. "We now have the Liverpool and Manchester trains stopping at Frodsham and we should look at ways to encourage people to get off and see Frodsham as a destination."

We even had one suggestion of "a local currency scheme" of "Frodsham or Helsby pounds," which would certainly help bring the community together around the local economy!

Of course, the Covid recovery of our local economy and community can only be furthered so much by the actions of local people, and our respondents had many ideas about how the government can help to support its success as we move forward.

Several Nub Voice volunteers called for increased financial assistance for the high street, hospitality and the self-employed.

In the long term, one respondent thought that the government could help boost footfall to towns like Frodsham by making active travel and public transport more attractive options for local people.

"Private cars cause huge amounts of traffic, pollution and make our high street a much less pleasant place to spend time," they said. "[For example], eating an ice cream outside the gelateria is somewhat spoilt by constant queuing traffic."

Although local residents are keen to see businesses allowed to flourish as they emerge from the pandemic, they agree with lockdown restrictions being maintained or reintroduced if necessary.

"I personally feel that the 'roadmap' has been a success," said one respondent. "The best thing the government can do is to not give in to pressure and continue to ease us slowly and carefully back to normal."

While they advocated a gradual relaxation of restrictions, people were also anxious not to get stuck in the habits of the pandemic, with one volunteer saying that the government should now make sure that all services such as GP surgeries return to in-person appointments once again.

"They claim that they are," they said, "but everyone is having trouble contacting a doctor let alone seeing one."

If you would like to be part of Frodsham Nub Voice, you can sign up here!.