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24
Dec 2020
The Mayor of Ripon has given a message of support and hope for residents of the city as 2020 draws to an end.
Councillor Eamon Parkin, whose mayoral year has been extended after a new mayor could not be appointed in May due to the pandemic, gave the following message to the Stray Ferret for Ripon:
It has been a year of darkness and light for the citizens of Ripon.
Few will be sorry to reach the last page in their 2020 diaries, after the nine months we have just endured.
As the joint owner of a public house, I know the pain that fellow publicans and other small businesses in the hospitality sector have experienced in this stop-start, lockdown year.
All traders classed as ‘non-essential’ have been losing out since March, with some struggling to keep their heads above water.
Against this backdrop of hardship and heartache, Ripon’s independent spirit has shone through. We turn into 2021 financially poorer, but richer in other respects.
Though the civic year has been severely curtailed by covid, I have either witnessed or been told of hundreds of acts of kindness across our proud and ancient city.
People who worked late into the night on kitchen tables to produce vital protective equipment, joined neighbours on Thursday evenings to applaud the service of our hard-pressed frontline workers.
Restaurants and cafes closed because of coronavirus restrictions, made thousands of meals that were taken to elderly and vulnerable people stuck in self-isolation.
A Ripon butcher delivered free weekly meat packs to help hard-up families.
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