Lincolnshire pays out most in pothole damage claims

Lincolnshire will move into tier 3 restrictions from Wednesday, as the UK moves out of the national coronavirus lockdown.

It kicks in at midnight on Wednesday, December 2, with all retail and hairdressers opening among other sectors.

Areas in tier 3, Greater Lincolnshire included, will not be allowed to have hospitality venues open, including pubs, restaurants and cafes, unless it is for a takeaway or collection service.

Accommodation such as hotels, B&Bs and guest houses must also stay closed, barring exceptional circumstances.

These exemptions include if someone is unable to return to their main residence, using it as their main residence or needs it to attend an event such as a funeral or work, among others.

The government has now published its rules for areas based on what tier they are in, with all still being advised to follow the rule of ‘Hands. Face. Space.’

Tier 3 doesn’t allow for anyone to meet socially indoors with anybody you don’t live with or have a support bubble with, unless legal exemptions apply.

You must also not meet people in a private garden or most outdoor venues, but the rule of six does apply in areas such as parks, playgrounds, outdoor sports facilities and public gardens.

There are exceptions to the rule of six in outdoor public spaces, where you can gather with more than six people, some of those include:

• For work or providing voluntary services
• For education, childcare and training
• For supervised activities for children who were under 18 on August 31
• For parent and toddler groups up to a maximum of 15 people (under-5s don’t count towards the limit)
• For children who have separated parents or guardians
• To allow contact between birth parents and children in care
• For organised sport and physical activity, including elite sports
• If you are attending a funeral (maximum of 30 people) or wedding (up to 15 people)
• Providing emergency assistance or seeing someone who is dying

The Christmas exemptions

These rules do not apply for the Christmas period, with some rules lifted between December 23 and 27.

In these dates, you can form a Christmas bubble with people from up to three households, but must not change your bubble or be in more than one.

The only exception to this rule is for children under 18 who have separated parents that will not be in the same Christmas bubble.

You can travel between tiers for the purpose of meeting with your Christmas bubble, and you can meet them in private homes, places of worship or public outdoor spaces.

You can also form a different Christmas bubble to the people you normally live with, as long as you don’t exceed the three household rule.

University students are being given a travel window to get home for Christmas, with mass testing starting in Lincoln on Monday.

If these rules are broken, police can issue people with a first time offence fine of £200, doubling for further offences before reaching a maximum of £6,400.

Anyone involved with holding an illegal gathering over 30 people can fined £10,000.

To read the full list of guidelines, visit the gov.uk website.

Lincolnshire health bosses are confident the county can return to some of the lowest COVID-19 infection rates in England as it heads into 2021, but warned people need to “work our hardest now”.

Infection rates across the county have already shown signs of dropping. On Monday there were some 297 cases confirmed in the county, although three residents also died with the virus.

Andy Fox, Lincolnshire County Council’s consultant in public health, said the figures across the county were “tracking down broadly, which is really good” as we head into December.

“It’s an important time for us all. As we go into tier 3, we need to make this work for Lincolnshire and we need to work our hardest now, especially in the in the period before Christmas, to make sure we all follow those key tier 3 regulations,” he said.

“Although in Lincolnshire we might feel that we’re in a tougher place being in tier 3, in terms of preventing the virus, it’s a good place to be and it should mean that if we come down, we could end up going into 2021 as one of the lowest prevalence areas in the country.”

East Lindsey District Council, which had been third highest last week, dropped to 13th in Monday’s seven-day averages.

Most other districts also saw a drop, however, Boston jumped to second place nationally after infections spiked to 515.9 — that’s nearly double the county average of 270.5, and more than three times the England average of 167.8.

| Data: GOV UK / Table: The Lincolnite

Mr Fox said: “Boston has been heading in the wrong direction. We’ve seen a slow increase over the last couple of days. It is concerning.”

However, his suspicion is the rise was related to “a couple of outbreaks” leading to high spikes, which were “yet to clear out of the seven-day figures”.

These are understood to include care homes where asymptomatic testing is carried out on a regular basis.

He said the council’s own figures, which were ahead of the government ones shared with the media, suggested the infection rate would come down, but that health bosses were being cautious.

Lincolnshire cases up to November 30 (recent five days incomplete).

Lincoln city also saw a slight increase in its infection rate from 331.3 on November 27 to 338.4 per 100,000 — placing it 11th in the national rankings as of Monday.

Health bosses jumped on the chance to be included in the government’s mass community testing pilot, which is available for all tier three areas.

They are hoping to be able to use the new legislation to target key areas such as food factories and care homes.

Further details are still to be confirmed as to what local authorities can do, but the government is understood to be letting councils lead the pilots based on local knowledge.

The High Street could be on the verge of collapse, as retail giant Arcadia fell into administration, putting some 13,000 jobs at risk and Debenhams is shutting down.

The retail empire owned by Sir Philip Green owns the Topshop and Topman brands, as well as Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge among others.

Arcadia operates from 444 sites in the UK as well as online, and currently has more than 9,000 staff on furlough.

It has faced major financial damage from non-essential retail stores being forced to close as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Debenhams on St Mark Street. | Photo: Emily Norton for The Lincolnite

The fate of Debenhams was sealed after JD Sports pulled out of talks to rescue the retailer from collapse.

Now, 124 stores will close and more than 12,000 staff are likely to lose their jobs as administrators try to find a buyer.

Talks began after Debenhams slashed more than 2,500 jobs across the UK in August amid slow sales figures post-lockdown.

Arcadia went into administration after rejecting a £50 million loan offer from Frasers Group, a high street rival of Philip Green’s.

There is now growing pressure on Mr Green to fund the future of the company’s pension scheme, valued at around £350 million.

Deloitte has now been drafted in to find a buyer for the company and help keep the businesses running.

Matt Smith, joint administrator at Deloitte, said: “Arcadia sits at the heart of the high street, and has been striving to combat the impact of COVID-19 throughout this year.

“Now the effect of the lockdowns, combined with broader challenges facing bricks and mortar retailers, have resulted in a critical funding requirement for the group and today’s administration.”

No redundancies have been made as yet, and the stores are expected to open and trade as normal once lockdown is lifted on Wednesday.

Orders made online over the Black Friday weekend will be honoured, according to administrators.

The writing was on the wall

Colin Davie, the county councillor in charge of economic development, said: “We all know that the high street was already in decline but COVID-19 has accelerated that process as online shopping has increased at a furious pace.

“The current high street, as we knew it will not return. We need to work at pace and redesign our high streets so they are full of local shops and businesses offering products and services which are not available online.

“They need to become destinations in their own right, rather than places we pass through.

“We need to start the process of getting people living in apartments on high streets above the reduced retail space below and we need to support these local businesses to digitise so they can compete with major online retail.

“I fully recognise that absentee landlords demanding sky high rents and the business rates regime is a physical barrier to retailers wanting to even be on a physical high street and government needs to urgently review their position in these regards.

“The announcement of this morning will sadly not be the last.”