It looks like visits to places like restaurants and cafes have returned to normal levels in Herefordshire

Our analysis suggests that visits to restaurants, cafes, shopping centres and other “retail and recreation sites” returned to pre-lockdown levels for the first time last week.

Our analysis is based on data published by Google of how smartphone users are moving around different areas. This dataset shows how much people are moving compared to a baseline pre-lockdown.

 We extract the data for Herefordshire and publish it online every day at dataorchard.org.uk/google-mobility-data. The seven days ending 1 September (the most recent date available) were on average above the pre-lockdown baseline for the first time.

This suggests that people are visiting pubs, restaurants and shopping centres more than they have done for some months. That is likely to be good news for those businesses, assuming everybody continues to maintain social distancing and the other public health measures.

Based on the same data a return to normal visits to workplaces in the county is likely to take much longer. There has been a steady increase over the past weeks but at a very slow rate.

We hope that the mobility data will help charities, business and others in the county understand what is really happening in the economy. We hope to build on this Google Mobility Data to provide local decision makers with a fuller picture of how the local economy is responding. We’d love to hear from people who have ideas of data they would find useful, or would like to share data that they hold.

To see the latest Google Mobility Data for Herefordshire visit dataorchard.org.uk/google-mobility-data