“I am struggling to understand how this move is going to help' - Harborough council leader's strong reaction to the district moving into Tier 4

The leader of Harborough District Council said he is struggling to understand how moving into Tier 4 will help the district.

As we reported earlier, Harborough is to be moved from Tier 3 along with Leicester and the rest of Leicestershire at midnight tonight, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced in the House of Commons this afternoon.

Tens of thousands of people across Harborough will join about 42 million other people throughout England facing the toughest coronavirus restrictions as we go into 2021.

Non-essential shops and indoor gyms and sports and leisure centres will all be forced to close – piling even more pressure on to our seriously-struggling high streets.

Cllr Phil King, the leader of Harborough council, told the Harborough Mail this afternoon: “This is no great surprise, sadly, because there has been a real upsurge in cases here over the Christmas period.

“The rate has shot up by about 75 per cent in the last seven to 10 days alone.

“So in effect we are all being subjected to a new national lockdown.”

He added: “What can I say?

“I am struggling to understand how this move is going to help.

“What will it do for our many small and medium-sized businesses in Harborough?

“These businesses have gone the extra mile during this awful Covid pandemic.

“But they’ve still got to shut.

“And yet big businesses are fine it seems.

“I just do not see what difference this is going to make.”

Cllr King is now demanding that the new Pfizer and newly-approved Oxford/University AstraZeneca vaccines are urgently rolled out to millions of people all over the country now.

“Why are we waiting to do this?

“It’s all right vaccinating people in Kibworth until 7pm at night as we did on Tuesday,” insisted the Conservative council leader.

“But we should be working away until 11pm at night or even later giving these jabs to people.

“I don’t understand why we are not vaccinating people much more quickly now that the vaccines are available.

“Why aren’t we giving people the new Oxford jab now rather than waiting to start on Monday (January 4) instead.

“It makes no sense at all.

“The only way we are going to beat Covid and start to get back to normal is by vaccinating all of us as soon as possible.

“Obviously frontline NHS and care home workers have to come first.

“The NHS has had six months to plan for this.

“So they should be vaccinating their medics, doctors and staff around the clock,” said Cllr King.

“A lot of hospital staff are either off sick at the moment or they’re being forced to isolate – compounding the coronavirus crisis.

“So let’s get them all vaccinated as fast as we can – and if that means working 20 hours a day to get it done then so be it.”

He spoke out after Cllr Phil Knowles, who leads Harborough council’s Liberal Democrats, urged people throughout the district to stay safe over New Year by holding very low-key celebrations to welcome in 2021.

“I’d just like to make a very simple but powerful appeal to thousands of people all over Harborough as indeed to many millions up and down the country.

“Please do all you can to stay safe and stay healthy this New Year.

“We are not out of the woods yet by a long chalk,” warned Cllr Knowles, a veteran health activist.

“We all know that mutations of this terrible virus are making it even more dangerous, posing even more of a lethal threat to life and limb.

“So it’s even more critical that we all follow the rules over the New Year and into January.”

Tough Tier 4 rules include:

Pubs, bars and restaurants can only serve takeaways

Hotels must close their doors

Indoor gyms and leisure centres must shut

Personal care services and non-essential retail must close

Residents should stay at home as much as possible

Residents should not enter or leave Tier 4 areas unless for essential reasons

Residents from Tier 4 areas should not stay overnight in other areas

They cannot go abroad apart from "limited exceptions" such as work

People should work from home if they can

Communal worship may continue

Weddings and civil partnerships can only take place in exceptional circumstances, with a limit of six attendees.