Lancashire leaders reject hospitality lockdown and demand millions from government to cope with tougher lockdown

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has seen a letter from the region’s 15 council chiefs which calls for an expected tightening of Covid restrictions next week to focus on broadening the existing ban on household mixing within homes and gardens.

Currently in Lancashire, there is also strong advice that members of more than one household or support bubbleshould not meet in public venues such as pubs, shops and parks – but it is not legally enforceable.

The leaders’ request – which draws heavily on advice from the area’s three directors of public health – is a clear rejection of widely-reported government proposals for a hospitality lockdown across the North of England to combat surging rates of coronavirus.

The move follows two meetings in the space of 24 hours between Lancashire leaders and Downing Street officials, ahead of a planned announcement by the Prime Minister on Monday about the introduction of a three-tier system of Covid restrictions nationwide.

Several sources familiar with the local discussions told the LDRS that the letter - to Boris Johnson’s chief strategic adviser Sir Edward Lister - was sent after it was concluded that pubs and restaurants are not the primary factor driving coronavirus transmission in Lancashire, although they are considered to be playing a part.

The letter states that the impact on virus transmission of closing such venues would be "minimal", with only 14 percent of positive cases in Lancashire linked to hospitality. It advises that "where pubs, restaurants and other hospitality setting provide a Covid-secure environment, they should remain open".

It is understood that the government’s representatives indicated, as widely expected, that Lancashire is to be put into the most restrictive “tier three” when new rules come into force on Wednesday. However, it was not made clear whether all parts of the county would be categorised in the same way.

The possibility of variability in the regulations prompted the leaders to call for any restrictions – whether those suggested locally or any ultimately imposed by the government – to be introduced county-wide in order to create a consistent and comprehensible message to residents across all areas.

Lancashire’s leaders were also advised that there was no prospect of schools, colleges or universities being ordered to close – with one source telling the LDRS that a government official indicated that position would likely remain the case even if such institutions were found to be the epicentre of the county’s Covid infections.

There was a further suggestion that restaurants may ultimately escape any hospitality shutdown, but no detail about exactly how such establishments would be defined - and if they would encompass the many Lancashire pubs whose main business is serving food.