Town's independents hope for high street revival after pandemic swindonadvertiser.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from swindonadvertiser.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
It’s more than eight months since Prime Minister Boris Johnson first put the UK into lockdown. Shops, salons and cafes down Royal Wootton Bassett’s high street were forced to close, with no idea when, or if, they would be able to reopen. It was a strange time. Unprecedented, in fact. Never before had the place so well-known for its community spirit been so still. “During lockdown, it was pretty much a ghost town,” said Claudia Allen, who travelled in from Brinkworth to get groceries for her shielding family. “Now, it’s basically returned to exactly how it was before.”