Calls for tougher enforcement of covid restrictions in Hartlepool

Councillors made the calls at the latest meeting of Hartlepool Borough Council Audit and Governance Committee following concerns over residents breaking rules in place to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

Cllr Brenda Harrison said it was her understanding police would issue a warning the first time they came across somebody breaking the rules in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However she wants to see police take action immediately if they catch anyone breaking the regulations in place.

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Cllr Harrison said: “I understand that the enforcement is there and that police are actually taking action, but I think the first time they come across somebody who is breaking the rules as it were, they get a warning, which is then tracked and then they will enforce whatever after that.

“Personally I don’t think that warning should exist, I think that people know they are breaking the rules by having a party, and if they’re caught I think enforcement should be put in straight away, but that’s my view.

“But I think they [police] are trying to do something.”

Cllr Marjorie James also noted how discrepancies in Covid-19 rules means while people cannot buy a bottle of wine from a takeaway to go with their meal, they can buy as much alcohol as they wish from supermarkets.

She added over the Christmas period it was ‘quite clear’ people were buying alcohol for parties which should not have been happening.

She said: “It’s just completely unacceptable that those discrepancies are there.

“I’ve witnessed myself over the Christmas period people walking around in Tesco with trolley loads of trays of drink and wine and everything else in their trolley.

“It’s quite clear that people are having parties and yet that’s not supposed to be happening and there doesn’t really seem to be anything being done about that.”

Last month the Safer Hartlepool Partnership heard from police chiefs in the area how they were trying to keep it about ‘engagement, encouragement and education’ to ensure residents follow Covid-19 restrictions in place.

However police warned they had received calls to take more enforcement action, and that this may happen moving forward, but it was something they were trying to stay away from, given the existing impacts of Covid-19.

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