"Stay at home in Milton Keynes this Easter" say city leaders

All three political group leaders at Milton Keynes Council have united to urge residents to stay at their own homes during Easter.
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Their message chimes with that of the national Government which urges people not to meet with friends for parties, or family members, because anyone can be carrying deadly coronavirus.

“Nobody wants to be responsible for hurting somebody else and people are risking that. It is a highly infectious virus,” said Cllr Pete Marland, the Labour group leader and elected head of MK Council.

“There are 300,000 people in Milton Keynes, and the decisions that everybody takes do matter. The vast majority of people have been really good in sticking to the rules and we must keep doing that.”

Milton Keynes HospitalMilton Keynes Hospital
Milton Keynes Hospital

Cllr Marland (Wolverton) added that he thought the city owes a “debt of gratitude” to MK hospital chief executive, Professor Joe Harrison.

And by staying at home, the residents of MK would help ease the pressure on hard pressed hospital staff by reducing the number of people who catch covid-19.

Star Wars fan and Conservative group leader Cllr Alex Walker (Stantonbury) referred to the message of hope in the Queen’s address to the nation on Monday.

He said: “This will be an Easter holiday like no other, and as hard as it is, all of us in MK must stay at home in order to lower the spread of the virus and protect our NHS.

“I’ll echo the sentiment from Her Majesty the Queen on Monday, we will all be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, but at this time, we need to focus on protecting lives and that means playing our part and staying at home over Easter.”

Cllr Walker suggested a few activities to keep everyone occupied over the four-day weekend, when both Friday and Monday are bank holidays.

“There’s plenty we can do at home,” he said. “Egg hunts, drawing, painting, board games, FaceTime with friends and family.

“I’ll be checking in with some older residents in my ward over the phone and probably settle down for a Star Wars marathon.”

The Lib Dem group leader Cllr Douglas McCall (Newport Pagnell South) said he recognised that people get annoyed when they see others breaking the rules. But he urged everyone to keep to the stay at home rules.

“We realise many holidays have had to be cancelled, but we all must heed the call to STAY HOME AND SAVE LIVES,” he said.

“We all would love to be spending time visiting children or grandchildren or parents, but we can’t if we want to protect them.”

He added: “While some people may be bored at home we need to remember there are many key workers; in the NHS, care homes, council staff visiting the elderly in their homes, social workers, shop workers, bin men, deliver drivers, etc who are working hard to keep us safe and feed.“