Revealed: This is what Northampton Chronicle & Echo readers think about easing the lockdown

Nearly 80 per cent of readers who completed our survey on lockdown are either "very concerned" or "slightly concerned" about going back into pubs, shops, restaurants and cinemas.

The figures come from the Northampton Chronicle & Echo's recent survey on reader views of lockdown and how Covid-19 has affected them.

Nearly 900 people took part in the survey, which was run on the Chron's website and launched last Thursday. The results were finalised last night, Monday. Nationally, across a number of JPIMedia titles, more than 24,000 completed the survey.

We asked readers 25 questions on their attitude towards lockdown.

Today is officially day 50 of the lockdown and comes amid debate on how we emerge out of lockdown.

Some of the questions in our survey centred on the process to leave lockdown.

We asked:

When lockdown restrictions are eased, what level of priority do you personally believe should be given to each of the following?

30.31% said they were very concerned, 47.99% were slightly concerned, 11.41% not very concerned, 9.40% not all concerned and 0.89% were not sure.

By comparison, on a national level, 41 per cent answered ‘slightly concerned’, 37 per cent answered ‘very concerned’, 12 per cent answered ‘not very concerned’ and 10 per cent answered ‘not at all concerned’.

When lockdown restrictions are eased, what level of priority do you personally believe should be given to each of the following?

Visiting family and friends was given the highest priority, followed by more mourners at funerals, reopening workplaces, going outside more often, reopening schools and reopening local shops and restaurants.

Some business are planning to re-open in the near future, with special measures in place to safeguard customers. Which if any of the following would you be keen to visit if they re-opened? (People could pick more than one)

48.6% said garden centres with social distancing measures, 34% said DIY stores, 26.5% said fast food restaurants reconfigured for drive-thru, 21.8% said takeaway coffee chains reconfigured for drive-thru, 8.3% said electrical stores with social distancing measures and 31.4% said none of the above.

During the course of this week we will be publishing more results of what local people had to say in our lockdown survey.

These will look at issues including how you have been affected by lockdown and what you think about when children should go back to school.