WHILE we may not have had the most auspicious of starts, I hope this year will still prove to be better than the last and wish all East Lothian residents a safe and peaceful new year.

There have been a lot of important developments since my final column of last year. Following the late changes to the festive bubble arrangements, many of us ended up having very different holidays to those we had perhaps been planning.

Despite those necessary changes and the jump to Level 4 restrictions on Boxing Day, we have seen the number of new cases, hospitalisations and, sadly, deaths continue to rise. This made the lockdown announced on January 4 inevitable.

That announcement also included confirmation of a return to home learning for most pupils when schools returned this week. I know this will be hard for many parents as they juggle working from home and supporting their children’s learning. I hope that schools have adapted and learnt from last year’s period of home schooling. For those who need extra help, we have been pressing the Government to provide additional support and guidance.

The situation underlines the vital importance of rolling out the vaccination programme as quickly and efficiently as possible, since that is the clear route out of the pandemic now. In the meantime, we must all show the same resolve as last spring in following the rules to play our part in slowing the spread of the virus and allow time for the vaccine to be administered.

I am confident East Lothian will show the same collective community spirit that was displayed during the last lockdown, by helping protect the NHS, respecting essential workers and supporting neighbours.

Nobody should be under any illusions about the seriousness of the situation we now face again.