This is what News readers think about easing the coronavirus lockdown - and how well the government is performing

The lockdown survey, which attracted almost 1,000 responses, saw 65 per cent of readers place a ‘high priority’ on being allowed to visit friends and family.

Only six per cent said visiting loved ones should be a ‘low priority’.

It comes as the government has eased some lockdown measures, allowing people to meet one other person from outside their household if they are outdoors.

More than 43 per cent respondents said they were keen to visit garden centre with social distancing in place – with just 24 per cent keen to visit fast food restaurants reconfigured for drive-through.

But fears about Covid-19 remain, with the majority of readers – 76 per cent - saying they felt concerned about going to public places such as shops, bars, restaurants, and cinemas once lockdown is eased.

A national survey – across 150 newspaper – found that 41 per cent answered ‘slightly concerned’ and 37 per cent answered ‘very concerned’.

As the government has come under fire for a lack of clarity on it’s updated lockdown guidance, 30 per cent of News readers thought guidance so far has been ‘very clear’ and 33 per cent thought it was ‘quite clear’.

The national average found had 30 per cent of people find it ‘very clear’, 35 per cent find it ‘quite clear’, while 22 per cent said ‘not very clear’, and 14 per cent said ‘not at all clear’.

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And the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has split News readers, with 15 per cent saying it had been handled ‘very well’ and 36 per cent saying ‘quite well’ – while 21 per cent believe it has been handled ‘not very well’ and 24 per cent believe it has not been handled ‘not at all well’.

The national average, by comparison, was 12 per cent for ‘very well’, 34 per cent for ‘quite well’, 24 per cent for ‘not very well’ and 28 per cent for ‘not at all well’.

During the course of this week we will be publishing more results of what local people had to say in our lockdown survey.

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