St Davids county councillor, David Lloyd, reflects on life in lockdown in Britain's smallest city

“They have been strange times. St. Davids has been a ghost town with few cars and almost no one walking the streets. It has reminded me of growing up in St. Davids in the fifties when few local people owned cars and tourism had yet to arrive.

“A few shops have re-opened in recent weeks with strict arrangements for people to enter and leave, one at a time.

“All pubs, cafes and restaurants have remained closed, with one or two offering take away food in the evenings.

“The car parks at Caerfai and Whitesands have been cordoned off with police patrolling them on a regular basis. The cliff path has also been closed.

“When the St. Davids re-cycling centre re-opened on a strict pre-booking basis it was a red letter day! This was the first and example of a relaxation of the ‘stay home’ order.

“The Non, Dewi and Aidan campuses of Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi VA have remained closed since the lockdown. All the staff, however, have been working hard and innovatively to create an ‘online school’.

"So successful have they been in engaging pupils in a range of exciting learning activities while monitoring their health and wellbeing that their work has been recognised in an article in the Times Educational Supplement. I strongly suspect the delivery of schooling will change as a result of this experience in the future.

“Staff have also been working on a rota basis at Ysgol Glannau Gwaun, Haverfordwest High VC and Gelliswick VC Primary School looking after vulnerable children and the children of key workers of the county.

“Unlike England, schools in Wales are scheduled to re-open on a part-time basis for pupils on the 29th June 2020.

“The St. Davids peninsula comprises 3,000 dwellings, 750 of which are either holiday cottages or second homes. While other parts of the county have seen many second homeowners visiting their properties, causing great resentment, St. Davids has not experienced this.

“I have reflected on this and concluded that local owners have shown a genuine concern for the people of the peninsula. To their credit they have resisted the strong temptation to visit.

“Given that my wife, Gail and I are 74 and 75 years old we fall into the vulnerable, ‘old’ category set by government and accordingly have been advised to strictly observe the ‘Stay home’ order by self-isolating.

“Fortunately, our three grown up children all live in St. Davids with their own families and they have seen that all our shopping and other needs have been looked after throughout the lockdown. They have been very kind and thoughtful while being very strict in seeing that we observe the rules; an unexpected reversal of family roles for us to experience!

“A remarkable feature of the lockdown has been the community response to the impact of the crisis on vulnerable people. These have included the elderly and lonely and those in financial difficulty for whom food poverty has been for too long a hidden and harsh reality. This must change.

“The befrienders, a team of 35 volunteers organised by City Councillor Alan York, supported by fellow councillors Bethan Price, Mike Chant and Richard Thornton, have reached out to some 40 people in need of personal contact and practical support of a variety of kinds.

"The contribution to the quality of life of these people has been considerable. I am quite sure that when the pandemic abates the work of the Befrienders will become an integral part of the way we live in the St. Davids Peninsula.

“The St. Davids and Solva Food Pod, a team of 20 volunteers organised by Louise Tarbuck sources, packs and delivers some 40 food parcels a week across a radius of ten miles.

"Operating from the City Hall some ten volunteers gather to pack the parcels each morning on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The project started twelve months ago when Louise Tarbuck and Olivia Atkinson worked on their own at the scout hut distributing small amounts of surplus food that they had obtained from anywhere they could find it.

“Since then important contributions have been received from Baroness Eluned Morgan, Jerome Flynn, who helped introduce Puffin Produce, the Trussel Trust, the Cathedral, the Penknife Club, the City Council, Martin Lewis of the Money Show and Becky Lloyd, to create the substantial organisation it is today.

“An unexpected consequence of the collaborative work of the food pod has been to give encouragement to an ambition, long-held by a number of local activists, to make the sustainable production of home grown produce a realisable community project serving the residents of the peninsula.

“This development is also timely because it complements plans to introduce to the pupils of Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi the growing of fruit and vegetables on the three campuses as part of the new Welsh curriculum.

“Again, I have no doubt that the food pod initiative and associated activities will become another key part of our way of life in the peninsula into the future.

“A branch of COVID-19 Mutual Aid UK has also been operating in St. Davids since mid-March delivering prescriptions and running errands for isolated people across a radius of ten miles. It was set up initially by Tracey Lindsey and is now administered from her home by Audrey Thomas.

“All of which turns me to a reflection I have developed over the last few weeks: the expressions of compassion, generosity and goodwill - evident in various forms across our community - offer us the opportunity to change the way we live with each across the St. Davids Peninsula and beyond long after the pandemic passes.

“Beyond the unprecedented work of the befrienders, the food pod and other voluntary groups I have also noticed a change in the behaviour of people as they pass one by in the street, or along a road that one may be walking. No longer a clumsy ignoring of your presence characterised by many in the past, but a warm greeting followed often by an impromptu conversation. It is charming and long may it last.

“As for myself, in my role as county councillor for St. Davids, I have been unable to operate on the front line with the befrienders and the food pod as I would have chosen were it not for my self-isolation.

“However, I have been maintaining a busy Facebook page, Action St. Davids, where I respond to local issues as they arise while keeping everyone informed of the work of the county council as it might affect local people.

“The most challenging area of my work has been assisting businesses access any financial aid that they may be entitled to. My close contacts with key officers in the authority have been extremely helpful in resolving the many matters that I have raised with them in this regard, for which I am profoundly grateful.

“Throughout the crisis I have had the highest regard for the way in which all council staff, in all departments, have stepped up to the mark in responding to the very serious challenges that they have had to face.

“Finally, I turn to a simple monthly meeting of the steering committee of the St. Davids Festival of Ideas which I attended with six others on Friday, March 13, 2020 in the council chamber of the City Hall. The committee had been working since April of last year in the development of a pan-Wales festival based upon a long-standing festival of ideas in Sweden.

"It was intended to launch the inaugural festival on the weekend of April 24, 2020. The principal item on the agenda was to decide whether or not the festival should proceed on the proposed date in the light of news that a deadly virus which had originated in China was now spreading to Europe.

“No advice from government existed at the time to guide us with any certainty. A vigorous debate duly took place with persuasive arguments on both sides. It was certainly the case that all members present were extremely reluctant to abandon the twelve months of intensive preparation for the festival.

“Finally, however, and remarkably presciently in hindsight, it was felt that it would be irresponsible to put at risk the health of anyone in the community by attracting delegates to the festival at a time when they might well be carriers of the virus.

“On March 23, ten days later, the government introduced a national lockdown urging all to ‘Stay at home’. Maybe it should have acted sooner?”