Well, it certainly looks like lockdown is well and truly over, at least for one section of our local population.

I don’t want to start an inter-generational war or anything but it really seems that young people have decided they’ve had enough of lockdown and social distancing and it’s now anything goes.

I don’t want to come across as some kind of goody two shoes here but my lockdown has been just that – lockdown.

I value my health. I don’t want to end up on a mechanical ventilator at Leighton Hospital and I’ve taken whatever steps I could to minimise the risk of contracting coronavirus.

Now I’m the first to admit my personal circumstances have made lockdown bearable.

I can work from home quite easily. In fact, I actually think I can get more done without all the distractions of working in an office (I’ve only had three phone calls from my boss in almost three month).

I have a small garden so I can sit out and enjoy the sunshine if needs be and there are a couple of playing fields a short walk away where I can take some exercise.

And, quite remarkably under the circumstances, I’ve always been able to get supermarket home deliveries.

But I’ve set up a sort of person bio-security zone. All post and packages (I’m on first name terms with our DPD driver) are quarantined for at least 72 hours – yes, I really do that.

Food deliveries that have to be brought into the house are thoroughly washed. I decant anything that can be decanted into another container. If it’s something that can be safely left in the garage, it stays there for 72 hours before I bring it in to the house.

When I go out for a walk, I cross the road to avoid passing other people on the pavement and I’ve somehow managed to avoid going into any shops.

You may think this is excessive. I don’t.

Being perfectly honest, I fall in one of the higher risk groups and I will do whatever I can to try to stay safe – I don’t fancy being a statistic in some kind of herd immunity plan.

But for me to stay safe, it needs other people to play by the rules as well.

And up until last weekend, I felt most people were.

But that seems to have changed. I don’t know whether it’s got anything to do with the Dominic Cummings effect – if it’s good enough for him to swan about, ignoring the lockdown rules, it’s good enough for the rest of us.

Maybe it’s got something to do with the announcement that lockdown was being relaxed so we can meet more people, even have them in our gardens. Couple that with glorious weather and suddenly it’s beer and barbecue time and two fingers to social distancing. There certainly seem to be more positive and upbeat vibes from the government, even if they don’t seem to be backed up by the scientists.

I personally have noticed a difference. The playing fields where I exercise has suddenly become a lot busier with five or six groups of teenagers and young adults hanging out – and frankly there wasn’t a whole lot of social distancing going on.

But that pales into insignificance compared to the goings-on at Pickmere Lake.

According to the Guardian’s website, things have got so bad that police have had to get extra powers to deal with anti-social behaviour at the beauty spot.

It has become a problem area in recent weeks, with people travelling there from Northwich, Knutsford and neighbouring towns including Warrington.

On Friday, police were called to the lake to disperse large groups of youths who had gathered there and were drinking alcohol.

And now, police have issued a dispersal order which gives officers the power to ask a group of two or more people to leave if they are doing anything wrong.

The problem is this virus isn’t going away and I still don’t want to get ill.

The rate of infection, according to the Office for National Statistics, is still around 8,000 a day – more than 50,000 a week – which is actually a higher rate than when lockdown was imposed. As Prof. Devi Sridhar told Sophy Ridge on Sky News: “We are exiting lockdown with a larger number of deaths than we did when we actually entered lockdown.”

And the contract tracing and isolation scheme probably won’t be in full operation until the end of June at the earliest while the much-vaunted app to alert you you’ve been in contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case seems to be having problems.

Oh, and don’t forget the much-vaunted R infection rate is still dangerously close to ‘1’.

You may ask why the government seems to be in a headlong rush to lift lockdown. Some cynics have suggested it may be a way to get the Dominic Cummings shenanigans off the front pages but I would never be so crass as to make that assumption.

A final thought from someone wiser than me on Twitter: “The thing I like about viruses is how they become less infectious after we get bored of staying in.”

Stay safe everyone.