Allowing people in lockdown in England to travel to Wales ‘crazy anomaly’ says police boss

A police boss has criticised the “crazy anomaly” that allows people currently in lockdown in England to travel to the north of Wales while restrictions are in place.

The region’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones, backed MP Liz Saville Roberts who has called for the Prime Minister to act to stop those under restrictions in England from travelling.

The request to Boris Johnson followed concerns about residents in areas with high levels of Covid-19 transmission were travelling to parts of Wales with much lower rates, potentially spreading the virus.

“It is a crazy anomaly.”

‘Comply’

Arfon Jones added that it was vitally important that everybody complied with the new restrictions imposed by the Welsh Government in order to curb and suppress the rising rate of Covid-19 infections in Wrexham, Flintshire, Denbighshire and Conwy.

The coronavirus regulations include provisions for a fixed penalty notice to be issued for most types of breaches of the regulations, carrying a fine of £60.

This is increased to £120 for a second offence and continues to double for repeated offences, up to a maximum of £1,920. If prosecuted, however, a court can impose any fine (it is not limited).

Arfon Jones said: “We feel for those businesses that are affected but I think if we want to control this virus, our hands are very much tied in what we must do.

“Like most people I was horrified to see pictures of people flouting social distancing rules whether they’re holding illegal raves, house parties or in pubs and clubs.

“I’ve seen clips of people coming out of pubs at 10pm in the cities and having a street party. It’s completely irresponsible.

“The people in Caerphilly and Newport have shown the way. They went into local lockdown two to three weeks ago, and the numbers are coming down.

“It shows that what the Welsh Government are trying to do actually works, as long as local people abide by the rules.

“I hope that our residents in these four north Wales counties will comply with the local lockdown, and the sooner we get the numbers back down and get back to some state of normality, the better.”