THE CORONAVIRUS lockdown is still having a major impact on life in Wharfedale.

The Government may have started to ease some of the COVID-19 related rules on people’s movements in England but most of the major restrictions remain in place.

Many shops and businesses remain closed as the fight against the pandemic continues - and, locally, market traders are among those who have been facing a particularly tough time.

In Otley the markets have, as the traders themselves have been at pains to remind people, still been operating albeit only for food stalls and with social distancing rules in force.

But footfall is very far from what it would normally be on each of the market days.

This photograph of a very quiet Market Place was taken on Friday, May 15. The town centre would have normally been packed but, as this image shows, things are still very far from being ‘normal’.