THE LEADER of Wokingham Liberal Democrats said he expects January and February to be quite tough for residents.
Reacting to the Tier 3 announcement, Cllr Lindsay Ferris said he was at a briefing last night where it was 95% certain the borough would be moved into higher restrictions.
“It’s disappointing but not surprising,” he said. “There has been a spike in cases in Berkshire and in the borough. We have got to take the right action to protect residents.”
He said now is not the time to do “lots of merrymaking” at Christmas, and instead keep celebrations to a minimum number of guests.
“We need to be careful and patient,” he said. “At some point this will be over. But I expect January and February to be quite tough.”
Cllr Clive Jones, deputy leader of the party said it was a real shame — and that his first concern is the hospitality industry.
“They’ve worked so hard to make places covid-safe for customers,” he said. “The closure is going to be really difficult for them. I want to know what extra support is going to be made available for them.”
He was concerned that a spike in the new year could happen if households decide to form a Christmas bubble and mix throughout the five-day period.
“It will take time to get numbers down,” he added. “Test and trace has been a monumental mess since the beginning. They thought about testing in March and they didn’t. It still doesn’t work and we spent billions on it.”
He expects recovery from high infection rates in winter will take months, and wasn’t optimistic for family celebrations in Easter.
“The speed of vaccinations isn’t quick enough to get through everybody,” he said. “You have to have two jabs, three weeks apart. So it takes about a month for people to be given the all clear — and we still don’t know how long it will last.”
He hoped there would be clarity, and quickly, about what extra Government support will be given to the borough.
“From what I understand, there will be logistics support from civil services and the military — but nobody can tell me what exactly. There has been no clarity from the Department of Health.”
