The scooterist’s roadmap – Reasons to be cheerful (at last) | EDITORIAL
I’m not sure about you lot but the last year seems like a bad dream. Thankfully it seems like we’ve turned a corner at last and we can actually start to tentatively plan for the future. Boris’s latest ‘Roadmap’ announcement and the successful vaccination roll-out gives us hope for normality returning. Even if it isn’t going to be as quick as we’d like.
Aside from the obvious bad stuff (death/illness/financial/business and employment devastation) Covid has also played havoc with our social life. The roadmap gives us something to at least look forward to and a summer to plan for.
First the bad news…
It’s certainly not going to be plain sailing for the early events, Scarborough was already cancelled. The news that pub beer gardens can’t open until April 12th and hotels until May 17th in England means that Weston will also be unable to run during the May Bank Holiday weekend. The South West Scooter Clubs announced it was cancelled earlier today.
Kelso
Kelso is also still up in the air. Nicola Sturgeon has announced the plans for easing the ‘Stay at home’ message but no firm details for after April in Scotland, other than a return to the tier system. Ms Sturgeon has warned that travel restrictions will remain in place for “Some time yet” in a bid to stop the transmission of new variants into Scotland.
Aberystwyth
Wales are also yet to announce their plans but hopefully, Aberystwyth can go ahead. Although Wales’ deputy chief medical officer was quoted today as saying it will be a “Considerable time before we can mix freely in nightclubs or without any form of social distancing or protection.” We’ll keep our eye on the Welsh news.
Now the good news (for England)
From June 21st (if all goes to plan) freedom will be returned! Social distancing will be over, nightclubs/pubs/hotels will all be open and as long as the science dictates, we’ll be able to mingle again!
This means the first National Rally of 2021 will be Big 7 in Kent (just a week after lockdown ends), followed closely by Cleethorpes, then the Isle of Wight.
Big 7 is a campsite based event with marquee, which gives it a good chance of going ahead, as long as the restrictions don’t get tightened before then.
Cleethorpes also has a large campsite and the Beachcomber evening venue (under new management recently) is happy to hold the rally.
The Isle of Wight is also large and spread out enough to host a rally, the new airfield campsite can cope with the numbers so fingers crossed for that one as well.
Mersea Island may not be a National but it’s as big as many and comes straight after the Isle of Wight. It’s campsite based with marquees and a couple of indoor rooms, it’s highly likely that will go ahead as planned.
Proceed with caution
None of us have a crystal ball but there is an excellent chance that we’ll be able to attend some scooter events this summer. Straight after yesterday’s announcement, a couple of festival organisers were advertising their (much bigger than a scooter rally) events, which is a promising sign. We have to keep things real though, there’s a good chance public liability insurance is going to be harder to get, without it you can’t safely run a scooter rally. There is a likelihood that pre-entry Covid tests will be mandatory for indoor events, vaccination passports may also be needed but at the minute we can only speculate and read between the lines. You never know, things may be much better than we’re expecting.
At least we can start to plan, we’ll be able to ride our scooters long distances again just for fun, see our friends, our families and celebrate our freedom. Rallies may well be slightly different for a while but bear with the organisers and comply with any Covid restrictions they may have to enforce. Keep your eye on the BSRA page and on SLUK for the latest announcements. I think we’ve all come to realise that things can change in the blink of an eye and we can’t take anything for granted.
Stay safe, listen to advice and we’ll see you on the road to the seaside…
Iggy
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I think the Gov should set up mass vaccination programmes at rallies, as you would be hard pushed to find such an “at risk” from severe Covid group in one place in such large numbers…namely fat, balding men over 55 years of age who drink more than 14 units of alcohol per week and smoke!
Being Zap Brannigan, my William Shatner Mk. 5 corset and toupe sexily exclude me from that demographic.