Monmouth pub could be closed after police found around 20 customers drinking inside

Emily Gill, local democracy reporter

A pub near Monmouth could be closed for breaching coronavirus rules.

The Somerset Arms on Mitchel Troy Road in Dingestow has been handed an improvement notice by the county council after Gwent Police visited on April 30.

According to the improvement notice, Gwent Police witnessed around 20 customers “inside the premises sat at tables drinking during Covid level three where inside hospitality is closed”.

Other coronavirus regulation breaches included no floor markings for customers when queuing outside, no signs on the toilets stating only one customer at a time and no sign informing customers to remain seated at tables outside.

The Somerset Arms has until tomorrow to make the necessary changes before facing a reinspection.

At this point either the improvement notice will be dropped, or further action could be taken, including closing the premises.

Under Welsh Government legislation, Monmouthshire County Council has the power to issue improvement and closure notices to businesses failing to comply with Coronavirus regulations.

Monmouthshire has recorded just seven new positive tests for coronavirus in the last week and the case rate of 7.4 per 100,000 people is the seventh lowest in Wales.

One further death

Meanwhile, today’s figures from Public Health Wales confirmed one further death due to Covid and just 34 new cases of the virus since yesterday’s report.

The newly recorded death was in the Swansea Bay health board area.

No new cases were reported in seven of 22 local authorities and Cardiff with just seven, recorded the highest number of new infections over the 24 hours covered by the update.

Newport continues to have the highest weekly case rate in Wales at 23.3 per 100,000 people up to 2 May and the positive test rate at 2.2 % per 100,000 tests is also the highest in Wales.

Denbighshire hasn’t recorded a single new case over the same period.

The national weekly case rate up .1 to 9.6 and the test rate remains unchanged at 1.0% since yesterday’s report. 

Since the start of the vaccine rollout in December, 1,884,372 people in Wales have received a first dose and 798,925 people have had both jabs.