Mobile phone data to be used to track how many people visit York from Tier 3 areas

The figures released by City of York Council show there was not a significant number of visitors from Tier 3 areas before the latest lockdown.

York businesses have also worked hard to keep customers safe by rejecting bookings from groups in areas where people are advised not to travel and introducing coronavirus safety measures.

York’s director of public health Sharon Stoltz was asked by a resident how the council intends to stop people from Tier 3 areas travelling to York.

She said it was not the first time she had been asked - and that there is no way to stop visitors from other parts of the country.

“I know it is something that is concerning a number of people.

“There’s very little evidence that pubs and restaurants are a particular source of the spread of infection, because of the Covid-secure measures they’ve put in place.”

Andrew Lowson, director of York BID, said the organisation now has anonymised phone data that records who is visiting the city and where they come from.

He said: “We can actually understand who’s coming to the city and when we were in the tiered system, just to reassure, there weren’t many people travelling out of Tier 3 areas coming to York.”

“The fact that actually we have that information that we can monitor means that if we did feel it was a problem again, the council and partners could come together to see if there’s a way of remedying that.”

The meeting also heard that four new coronavirus marshals have been recruited and will patrol the city centre advising visitors when lockdown is lifted.