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December 2020 December 2020
showground, hazard lights flashing, following a steward with a torch and a high-
viz jacket. The weather is atrocious, and we dodge the heavy showers as we presence that the Council hopes will increase public confidence when visiting
carry everything into the marquee. Dorset’s high streets and town centres.
Rob gives me a quick kiss and says “Good Luck” before disappearing to have a While the police and select council officers will continue to have enforcement
look around the showground, as only the exhibitors are allowed in the tent. All the powers, COVID Marshals have been tasked with engaging, explaining and
competitors work away separately, but there is chat and laughter. I glance up encouraging best practice and national COVID-19 secure guidance. The
and my neighbour’s exhibit is stunning – an interpretation of cocktail hour with a marshals will also promote social distancing and encourage people to follow
giant cocktail glass fizzing with orchids and lime green viburnum flowers on a COVID-19 public health measures, while educating and explaining guidelines to
trellised frame. Oh – why did I come? businesses and the general public. They will work with local businesses on
measures like queue management, advising on one-way systems and social
My exhibit is not going well. I’ve started badly and nothing will go in right. At one distancing in queues. The marshals will also remind people to wear face-coverings
o’clock in the morning, I say in desperation to my fellow competitors, “If I had where required and encourage social distancing in busy areas. They can also
brought some more Oasis, I’d start again!” There are murmurs of sympathy, and help prevent mixing between groups in night-time economy areas, raising any
someone says she has some Oasis in her car outside, and will give me some. issues to local authority compliance and enforcement officers if guidelines are not
Someone else appears with a bucket of water to soak it in. I try to stay calm. being followed.
Rob reappears briefly, with a polystyrene cup of hot coffee. I could have done While the Marshals are currently active in Weymouth, their operating area is
with a large gin! He is aghast to see all the plant material lying in heaps around flexible, and Dorset Council can deploy them anywhere in the county where it is
me, and tells me later that I seemed to be throwing the flowers back in. felt they are needed. They will continue to be active over the next few months.
Two a.m. – I glance up and cocktail hour is now groaning under dozens of
orchids. The exhibitor on my other side seems hardly to have started, with just a Business Grants during the second lockdown
few pieces of driftwood and her containers in place.
Businesses in the Dorset Council area which were ordered to close from 5
The flowers are back in at last, and I try to secure the masks with wire. They seem November 2020 due to the current national COVID restrictions may be eligible for
to be leering drunkenly at me, but I am too tired to care. This could be my last financial support through the government’s Local Restrictions Support Grant
chance at Chelsea, and I have blown it. The whole thing is a mess. Rob helps me (LRSG). Dorset Council is administering the grant on behalf of the government. An
clear up the chaos around me, and I sweep up around the staging one last time online application form and further information is available on our website. Eligible
with a heavy heart. Back at the hotel, I fall straight into an exhausted sleep till businesses will be paid a single fixed amount to cover a four-week period. If a
morning.
business has a rateable value of:
The next day is press day. I keep well away from the flower arranging marquee • exactly £15,000 or under on November 5, it will receive a payment of £1,334 per
with its painful memories. In any case, it is closed for judging. There is no buzz like 28 day qualifying restriction period
the buzz of Chelsea on press day. The crowds have not arrived, you can see all • over £15,000 and less than £51,000 on November 5, it will receive a payment of
the gardens and stands, and there are celebrities everywhere.
£2,000 per 28 day qualifying restriction period
I spot Esther Rantzen - and Gloria Hunniford in a beautiful scarlet silk dress. Martin • exactly £51,000 or above on November 5, it will receive £3,000 per 28 day
Clunes sits in a garden, sipping a glass of champagne. Alan Titchmarsh stands qualifying restriction period
engaged in deep conversation with Carol Klein whilst a man in yellow body-
To qualify, businesses must be in the Dorset Council area and must have been:
warmer holds a sheepskin duster on a stick over them. Big cameras move • open as usual before the November lockdown restrictions, and
ponderously around them like elephants around a water hole, trailing heavy • providing services in person to customers from the premises, and
wires.
• required to close due to restrictions imposed by government, and
At half past three, everyone without an exhibitor’s pass leaves the showground, • paying business rates for the premises before restrictions started
and people start to gather at the bull ring gate to see the Royal family arrive. I If a business premises has closed but is still operating a click and collect service,
stand with other flower arranging friends until the Royal press start to assemble the business can still apply. This could be a pub or restaurant operating a
and a policeman moves us to make room for them. Somehow, I am jostled into takeaway service, or a shop offering home delivery as an alternative to your usual
the first in line of people waiting to greet the Royals.
business. For businesses which do not have rateable values, the business pages on

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