SWINDON Speedway manager Alun Rossiter is urging the public to take a responsible approach when Covid restrictions are eased next week.

Rossiter is a well-known local figure both for his title-winning exploits as boss of the CFS Filtration Robins, and also as landlord of the Southbrook Inn.

And having recently completed ten days of self-isolation after he and family members tested positive for the virus – and suffered mild illness – he’s keen to stress the risk has not gone away.

Rossiter supports next Monday’s Step 4 relaxations and knows the boost it will give the hospitality industry, but he says people must still be respectful.

He said: “I was one of the ones who thought I was infallible because I’d had both jabs, and it doesn’t work like that.

“Certainly in the industry that I work in, it would be no hardship if once the restrictions do ease, maybe if you come to the bar you should still wear your mask, and protect the staff as well.

“I know we’re all totally fed up with it, myself included, but it’s not just about you, it’s everybody else that you’ve got to think about.

“And as we know, not everybody has the symptoms, and that’s the problem. It doesn’t discriminate who it gets, it gets anybody.

“The jabs don’t stop you from catching it, but the job it does do is stop the hospitalisations, so you get to a point where life has to go on. The country is struggling, you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to see that.”

Rossiter has given an in-depth exclusive interview to this week’s Speedway Star magazine about his experiences of the past fortnight, and also life outside of regular speedway this season.

Whilst the Premiership did get up and running successfully in mid-May, Robins were not present to defend their league title due to the concerns over restrictions allied to the expected building work at the Abbey – building work which is still yet to get underway.

Rossiter plans talks with local MP Justin Tomlinson and has stressed the club are stadium tenants so cannot control operations – but he does accept answers are needed with plans for 2022 needing to be put in place.

He said: “There’s really no change and it’s frustrating, I know that, but we have no major say in what goes on.

“But there is going to come a point in time when we need to know where things are at, when for example we need to talk to riders for putting a team together, and that really isn’t a long way into the future.”