This is how Eastbourne readers say the lockdown has affected their lives

Our lockdown survey, published across this title and 150 others across the UK last week, offers an insight into how the coronavirus crisis and lockdown has impacted people in Eastbourne and their concerns for the future. In total we asked readers 25 questions on their attitude towards the lockdown. Of these questions three focused on how the lockdown has affected mental health, relationships and concerns for the future - and today we can reveal how people in Eastbourne answered. The majority of Eastbourne Herald readers who completed our survey said they felt personally most concerned about the health and wellbeing of family/ friends (50%). This was followed by their own health and wellbeing (19%) and the impact on their children’s education (10%). By comparison, on a national level, 53% answered that they were most concerned about the ‘health and wellbeing of family/ friends’, 17% said their ‘own health and wellbeing’, 8.6% ‘security of employment/ work’, 8.5% ‘impact on your children’s education’ and 6.7% ‘your own/ household finances’. Of those who took part in the survey, 43% of Eastbourne readers said their mental health had been ‘slightly affected’ by the lockdown. Meanwhile, 13% said it had been ‘Severely affected’, while 23% said ‘Not much affected’ and 19% said ‘Not at all affected’. Nationally, 40% answered that their mental health was ‘slightly affected’, 12% ‘severely affected’, 23% ‘not much affected’ and 22% ‘not at all affected’. When asked about the effects the lockdown has had on their relationship with a live-in partner or spouse, 38% of Eastbourne readers who took part in the survey responded ‘It has not changed the relationship’. Meanwhile 10% said ‘It has brought us much closer together’ and 13% said ‘It has brought us slightly closer together’, while 7% said ‘It has pulled us apart slightly’ and 1% said ‘It has pulled us apart a lot’. The national average of answers on this subject was: 43% ‘it has not changed the relationship’, 12% ‘it has brought us slightly closer together’, 10.5% ‘it has brought us much closer together, 4.9% ‘it has pulled us apart slightly’, 1.6% ‘it has pulled us apart a lot’ while 25.7% answered that they do not live with a partner or spouse. During the course of this week we will be publishing more results of what local people had to say in our lockdown survey. A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton: In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers. With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers. Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis. Stay safe, and best wishes.

This is how Eastbourne readers say the lockdown has affected their lives - and their biggest concerns