‘Blowing off steam’: Majority behaving, but some going too far

Health bosses have said they understand people will need to “blow off steam” after being cooped up over the past year, but urged them not to go “too far” after a series of incidents this weekend.

Andy Fox, assistant director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council said the vast majority had been more compliant than expected throughout the whole pandemic, but as restrictions are relaxed he urged people to keep to the rules.

Both Lincolnshire and Humberside police forces over the weekend reported a number of incidents included a gathering of more than 40 in Stamford where a police officer was one of two people assaulted, several groups of more than six youths gathering and drinking alcohol in Skegness and a series of arrests in Cleethorpes following disorder in the high street.

Mr Fox said: “I understand we’ve all been cooped up inside for far too long, people want to get out and blow off a bit of steam, but I just urge you to remember that if anyone’s listening to this and considering going out in a big group and breaking the guidance.

“I’d expect some people to go a little bit too far and from everything that I’ve seen so far though these are isolated incidents rather than sort of representative of the population in general.”

He added though that the vast majority of the county’s residents had remained really compliant over time.

“They’ve been consistently more compliant than I’d expect, I’ve expected all the way through. Maybe my expectations were too low, but honestly, the people of Lincolnshire have been really good.

He said the guidance was there to measure the effects of the relaxations and to ensure there were no sharp rises as well as to inform health bosses and the government of the next steps to take.

“The serious point here is that the vast majority  have probably suffered in some sense in terms of their mental or emotional well being over the course of the last year. We’ve all lost things that that we were able to rely on to perk ourselves up a bit, and many of us will have lost loved ones and family members and it all takes its toll.

“So, yes, some people will no doubt want to get out there and get back into the social world that they used to live in and the time is coming to that, we’ll get there.

“But it’s important to hold back and to follow the pace that’s been set out for us in the roadmap – if we go too far too fast, we’re likely to see things increasing too far and too fast.”