Steven Broomhead is chief executive of Warrington Borough and writes a regular column for the Warrington Guardian

As the commencement of the national public enquiry into Covid nears, I have began to wonder what, in 50 years time, will be remembered about this traumatic time? Will it be the sad loss of over 250,000 lives including 350 here, the heroic efforts of our hospital and care workers, the severe impact on business and the economy or the tremendous community spirit and determination shown by Warringtonians.

There can be no doubt that Covid has been a societal game changer. Perhaps the biggest impact is how or where we work, with the hybrid office/ home arrangement now embedded in many local office business. This has produced uncertainty in the property market as lease renewals and space occupancy rate costs shift to the new market conditions. There have been other related impacts such as weekly travel with our local bus and rail travel, only back to 80% of pre pandemic levels. Covid also brought forward by many years the virtual ‘Zoom’ meetings. I now meet people who I ever only have met on a virtual call. Some are either taller or shorter than I imagined.

Hugs and handshakes were firmly off the agenda, replaced by fist bumps and the awkward elbow bump. Some predicted the handshake would disappear forever, that actually it had a resurgence together with more hesitant hugging and cheek kissing.

We’ll also remember ‘masking up’. Masking has remained with 15% of our more cautious citizens. Shopping ‘online’ dominated but thankfully there now seems a slow switch back to bricks and mortar retail, particularly in local areas.

Our town centres have faced catastrophic challenges and have recovered well by diversifying their offers away from shopping to more leisure and hospitality. Sadly the live entertainment industry has not fully recovered, although there are positive signs. Attendance at concerts and cinemas are down 30%, but as our 2022 Neighbourhood Weekender event has shown, there is still a tremendous appetite for live music events as part of the Covid ‘bounce back’

The school national curriculum was transformed by a new approach to digital learning. Accessing a GP is now more frustratingly a digital process.

My outlasting memory is of a town that embraced the Covid challenge and responded with resilience and positive community spirit and support for each other. We will possibly need to continue this response as the cost of living, a chance of energy blackouts, and unfunded tax cuts that may lead to fewer public services at a time when they are needed the most. We will discover more on this when the Chancellor produces his financial plan on Halloween of all days. Trick or Treat? I hope it doesn’t spook the financial markets.