Covid one year on: Colchester leaders urge people to follow rules

But one thing which has shone through during the crisis is the strength of our communities.

Perhaps no one has seen this more firsthand than Pam Donnelly.

She is chair of the One Colchester partnership, a group which includes councils, emergency services, education establishments and the voluntary sector.

Mrs Donnelly said: “I have no difficulty in voicing how proud I am of all of our partners and communities.

“The actions of individuals, groups and neighbours to support each other have been fantastic.

“They have taken place without any intervention from One Colchester or anyone else.

“There are so many individual acts of kindness no one will ever know about.

“In Colchester that has been complemented by the fact we have been ready to step up as an organisation.”

Mark Cory, leader of Colchester Council which is part of One Colchester, echoed Ms Donnelly’s thanks to residents of the town.

He said: “It has been a crazy year and it has tested us all.

“Being the elected leader of the borough I am really proud of how residents have responded and what we have done as the public sector.

“The people of Colchester have been on the whole really good at sticking to the rules. Council staff on the frontlines have been amazing, and the voluntary sector, co-ordinated by Community360, has been brilliant.

“Together we have helped save lives.”

One Colchester has been running for several years now, however, although crisis management was always part of its remit, no one could have ever predicted the scale of what was to come.

Mrs Donnelly said: “We were not set up for this, but we were set up to respond to challenges. We never anticipated the scale of this challenge.

“But we did not have to scrabble around at the start. We had a strategy in place.

“In the first five or six months, we were meeting every week to check on progress and identify any issues. We became a problem-solving group.

“We are stronger now than we were at the beginning.”

This collective strength will no doubt be needed over the coming months and years.

All the experts, including all the organisation’s member groups, are predicting a long and difficult road to recovery from the crisis.

But Mrs Donnelly says they will be ready to chip in wherever necessary.

She said: “Residents and businesses know they are not on their own and we are there behind them.

“We are anticipating some real challenges around unemployment and mental health and we see some opportunities where One Colchester can help.”

Although brighter days are on the horizon, both Ms Donnelly and Mr Cory have warned we haven’t overcome the coronavirus just yet.

“We need to stay focused as we do not want to lose the ground we have made up now,” Ms Donnelly said.

“Too many people have died or had their lives torn apart by the pandemic.

“We remain ready to respond to the next stage of the pandemic.”

Mr Cory added: “There are some really positive things coming forward, like the vaccine roll out, the number of cases coming down and summer being on the horizon, however, we are at a fine point where we could tip the balance the wrong way.

“I am very confident Colchester can bounce back because of our work collectively during the pandemic.”