MP lobbies PM to put Melton borough in lower Covid tier

It is unclear at the time of going to press whether areas of the country will be grouped into counties or districts when a new three-tier system is introduced.

There are fears that if Melton is treated as part of Leicestershire it could end up in Tier Three, with a ban on indoor socialising and closure of hospitality and entertainment venues, given that the city and suburbs have had consistently high infection rates.

Tiers One and Two will have less rigorous restrictions although Melton’s recent spikes in cases could mean the borough is placed in one of the higher tiers.

Melton MP, Alicia Kearns, says she has personally lobbied Prime Minister Boris Johnson to argue that areas should be placed in tiers in smaller district areas so they are not punished by being part of a county where the collective rate is higher.

Ominously, however, she says she is ‘not confident I will win this fight’.

In her latest Melton Times column she writes: “However, I will persist in my efforts to have Leicestershire treated as an exception, and have taken Melton’s case directly to the prime minister, health secretary and health ministers over the last two weeks.”

At the moment, non-essential shops in Melton, the town’s leisure facilities, hairdressers, beauty salons and The Regal Cinema can reopen on December 2.

But further restrictions may be imposed if the borough ends up in a high tier.

There have been more than 1,000 Covid cases across the Melton borough since the pandemic begun and 34 people have sadly died following a positive test.

Latest government figures show there were 147 new cases reported in the borough in the week to Friday, which is actually 69 fewer than the week before.

The area west of Melton has been highlighted as one of Leicestershire’s top 10 coronavirus hotspots, however, with 98 people testing positive from there for the fortnight between November 1 and 14, according to county council data.

Melton borough’s infection rate of 287 cases per 100,000 of the population will be taken into consideration when a decision is taken on which of the three restriction tiers the areas is placed into when England’s second national lockdown ends on December 2.