Hospitality sector to blame for lockdown – Yorkshire Post Letters

BEFORE the latest lockdown was confirmed, it was reported that Julian Sturdy, the Outer York MP, was critical of the increased level of restrictions being imposed throughout North Yorkshire, as it was problematic to the hospitality sector in York.

He possibly doesn’t comprehend that it is this ‘hospitality sector’ that caused the residents of York and North Yorkshire to fall into Tier 3 before Boris Johnson’s announcement.

Unfortunately, the county is surrounded by people who don’t seem to have a modicum of intelligence as regards unnecessary travel.

They travel from County Durham, Teesside, West Yorkshire and elsewhere for the proverbial ‘Scotch Egg’ and a pint in as many pubs as they can fit in as pubs and bars had been closed in their own residential areas.

There was no manageable control over their train or road travel from infected areas, nor was there any level of common sense being evident.

All the peripheral market towns were suffering likewise, Northallerton and Thirsk suffer more so as there is easy access via train.

One Thirsk publican was telling me that the majority of customers had Teesside accents, locals were not going in, and that it was a difficult decision to turn trade away in these lean financial times.

A neighbour commented about a chap in the queue at a fish and chip shop in Thirsk, got nattering to him and he said “just come down from the ‘Boro for a run out”. Meanwhile Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake was calling for more restrictions on travel without good cause after people flocked to York and North Yorkshire.

He was calling for this to be an offence rather than police guidance – one wonders how this could be implemented or imposed in the real world.

We are seeing ridiculous “fines” being dished out by overzealous constables; fixed financial penalties for minor road traffic offences are acceptable, but issuing a £10,000 ‘Covid’ penalty is beyond comprehension.

Once we get into that level of financial penalty the whole matter should be handled by professional prosecutors and competent tribunal with legal representation.

What we do need, however, is similar to what has happened in New Zealand and Sweden.

When all this started nine months ago people there were told to use common sense – something parts of the British general public don’t appear to have.

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