Northumberland council and tourism chiefs 'carefully considering' any changes after Government updates guidance

Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an announcement on Sunday night about the next stage of the lockdown as the country continues to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, which was followed by the publication of further guidance today, Monday, May 11.

A Northumberland County Council spokesman said: “Following the Prime Minister’s speech and further government guidance about easing the lockdown, we are now carefully considering how we will respond and what changes there may be for residents and businesses.

“The safety of the public remains our absolute priority.”

Coun James Jamieson, chairman of the Local Government Association, which represents councils, said on Sunday night: “During this pandemic, councils’ role as leaders of place has been more important than ever before.

“They will continue to lead their communities through this crisis as we adapt to this new way of life, working day and night to protect the most vulnerable, help local businesses, keep important services running and support national efforts to defeat this disease.

“The scale of the economic, environmental and community challenges that we will face cannot be underestimated. Communities will need to keep sticking together through this crisis and follow the Government’s plan and social-distancing rules to ensure people are not put at risk unnecessarily.”

Meanwhile, bodies involved in Northumberland’s tourism and visitor industry are also assessing the updated guidance and rules, not least because, from Wednesday May 13, people will be allowed to ‘travel to outdoor open space irrespective of distance’ and take ‘day trips to outdoor open space’.

A statement from the Northumberland National Park Authority said: ‘Following the Prime Minister’s address to the nation on Sunday, May 10 , Northumberland National Park Authority expects that more people will be preparing to access the countryside as of Wednesday.

‘We are digesting what the statement means for the National Park and looking at how we can safely prepare for this. We will releasing an updated statement and further details as soon as we can.

‘In the meantime, people are still encouraged to avoid unnecessary travel to the National Park.’

On Twitter, Northumberland Tourism posted: ‘Following last night’s announcement from the Prime Minister, we are currently awaiting further information regarding the new policies and what they mean for Northumberland. We will release further updates once it is possible to do so.’

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