Just take the batteries out of the smoke alarm – Owl

Aubrey Allegretti www.theguardian.com 

Boris Johnson is facing mounting anger after it emerged he continued with a tour of Scotland and decided not to isolate despite a member of his team testing positive for Covid-19 on the trip.

A senior government source told the Guardian the prime minister and official were “side-by-side” on several occasions and even travelled together on an RAF Voyager between Glasgow and Aberdeen, but a Downing Street spokesperson said they did not come into close contact.

The civil servant, who is now isolating at a hotel in Scotland, attended an event with Johnson at a police college on Wednesday.

Later that day, he and the staffer flew as part of a small No 10 contingency of about a dozen people to the next leg of Johnson’s two-day tour of Scotland – though they were said to be sat at opposite ends of a large cabin.

The group were tested upon landing, and the official’s result was positive so they went into isolation. Some whose result came back negative were told to make their own way home, while others, including Johnson, finished the tour. The prime minister was then pictured meeting the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, the Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, and the Conservative MP Andrew Bowie.

Johnson and several members of the No 10 contingent are not isolating – but a government source said “the whole lot should be”. The Downing Street spokesperson also refused to say if he had been tested since the positive case was discovered.

The prime minister is spending the weekend at Chequers, meaning if he is told to stay at home it will be the second time in a month he has had to spend 10 days in his countryside grace and favour mansion.

After coming into close contact with the health secretary, Sajid Javid, who tested positive for Covid in mid-July, Johnson and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, initially resisted isolating – claiming they could avoid it by participating in a daily contact-testing pilot. However, within hours they bowed to public pressure and said they would self-isolate.

Anneliese Dodds, the Labour party chair, said it was clear the prime minister “hasn’t learned anything from what happened last time he tried to cook up a reason to be above the rules everyone else has to follow”.

She said: “Senior Conservatives are really taking the public for fools. This is yet another example of one rule for them and another for everyone else.”

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, also called on Johnson to confirm he had not been asked to isolate again. Referring to the excuse Dominic Cummings used for breaking lockdown rules last spring, Davey said of the prime minister: “If it turns out he has scorned his own government’s policy on self-isolation again, the public reaction will be Barnard Castle on steroids.”

After being approached by the Guardian, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister regularly visits communities across the UK and all aspects of visits are carried out in line with Covid guidance. The prime minister has not come into close contact with anyone who has tested positive.”

Questions still remain, including over when the prime minister last tested negative, if he has the Covid contact-tracing app on his phone, and whether he wore a mask on the flight with the staffer concerned. Government guidance makes clear that in England it is “recommended and expected that passengers wear face coverings onboard aircraft”.

Johnson may also have to cooperate with the test-and-trace scheme set up in England and the separate test-and-protect operation in Scotland.

The rules by Public Health England say “contacts of a person who has tested positive for Covid-19 need to self-isolate at home because they are at risk of developing Covid-19 themselves in the next 10 days”, adding: “They could spread the virus to others, even before any symptoms begin.”

A contact is defined as someone who has had face-to-face contact with a person who has the virus from two days before they tested positive; been within 1 metre for one minute or longer; or been within 2 metres for more than 15 minutes – either as a one-off or added up together over a day.

It also includes someone who has “travelled in the same vehicle or plane as a person who has tested positive for Covid-19”, raising the chances Johnson’s flight with the staffer could yet see him forced into isolation.

Though he is fully vaccinated, everyone contacted by test and trace must still quarantine. The rules will change on 16 August to allow those who are fully vaccinated to avoid isolation.

Johnson faced calls to bring the date forward but resisted doing so, saying it was important people continued to follow the existing isolation rules to avoid spreading the virus.

His trip to Scotland was also mired by a joke he made that Margaret Thatcher gave a “big early start” to green energy by closing coalmines, which was denounced as “unbelievably crass” by the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.

“Visitors are not getting a good experience, locals are frustrated and systems can’t cope”.

Cornwall’s services are struggling to deal with an influx of visitors.

By Johnny O’Shea www.bbc.co.uk

With more Britons holidaying in the UK, Visit Cornwall estimates there are about 210,000 visitors, up from a usual peak of 180,000.

Beaches are busy, traffic heavy and the situation at the hospital is described as “dire” by its medical director.

Malcolm Bell, head of Visit Cornwall, said some “visitors are not getting a good experience, locals are frustrated and systems can’t cope”.

The county’s only 24-hour Emergency Department – at the Royal Cornwall Hospital serves the 560,000 residents – has been incredibly busy, with waiting times often more than four hours.

Medical director Allister Grant called the situation “unprecedented”.

The hospital said about 30% of those attending the Emergency Department are not registered with a Cornish GP, and were assumed to be visitors.

The number of Covid patients in the hospital has also increased, with 22 inpatients with the virus on 3 August.

South West Water said the demand in Cornwall was about 10 megalitres more water per day compared to this time last year, which was “the equivalent of between 50,000 to 75,000 people’s water use per day”.

The company said the demand is “putting a strain on the network” although reservoir levels are “looking healthy”.

However, for plenty of business owners the economic boost is welcome after a difficult 18 months, with an estimated £1bn lost in visitor spending.

In Padstow, Cherry Painter from Cherry Trees cafe said it is “absolutely amazing. It’s unprecedented – we have never had the crowds like this before. People realise this is where to come after lockdown. They are all enjoying themselves.”

Many businesses are also facing staffing shortages exacerbated by those being contacted by the NHS Covid app and told to self-isolate.

Next door to Ms Painter, Richard Walker from Padstow Fish and Chips said: “We are up by about 25 to 30% on a normal peak summer season. But that is made even busier by the fact we have a significant lack of staffing so we are having to manage on much less staff than we would normally.”

The Headland Hotel in Newquay has lost 21 staff in this way, causing it to close off some of its accommodation.

Increasingly, individuals have also been cashing in by letting their houses out to visitors, or opening a spare field as a pop-up campsite.

“Lots of local people, which you cant criticise them for have suddenly decided they can make a few thousand if they rent out their property and either go somewhere else or move in with mum and dad”, Mr Bell said.

Ali Arnison arrived on Friday, 30 July, for a long-awaited week-long holiday in Newquay with six of her family. By Wednesday they had returned home to Leeds.

“There are so many cases of Covid down there, no staff in restaurants… but they’re still packing people in.

“Ridiculously busy supermarkets with no staff and empty shelves. Even remote beaches were heaving, just no escape at all from the crowds. I feel so sorry for the locals.”

She said they were disappointed to end their holiday early, but “safety comes first”.

The latest figures show infection rates in Newquay West of 792.7 per 100,000 people, well above the averages for Cornwall of 248 and for England of 270.

When the sun was shining on Wednesday local people reported that Cornwall was “busier than ever”.

In Perranporth, which has a resident population of 3,000, lifeguards estimated a peak of 14,000 people on the beach: “We don’t get days like that very often.”

The car parks, and their overflow sections, were full by mid-morning and people took to parking along any available route into the town.

This meant parking on verges, and in housing estates several well away from the beach, and traffic jams winding for miles along the small roads and country lanes.

Tracy Brown has missed two cleaning jobs because of getting stuck in traffic this week but said: “I’m upset I have lost money after the last 18 months we have had, being self employed, but my biggest concern was the care in the community.

“Elderly people are sat in the beds waiting to be got up, given breakfast and even medication. But with a two-hour wait in traffic this is dangerous.”

At Porthcurno in west Cornwall, and Porthcothan on the north coast, some beach goers returned to their vehicles to find tickets on their windscreens after a visit from Devon and Cornwall Police and Cornwall Council.

Penzance Police said: “Porthcurno was again brought to a stand still… due to inconsiderate parking by visitors attending the area.”

It warned: “Inconsiderate parking like this may result in the delay of emergency services and put lives in danger.”

Kim Hayward, from Porthcothan – a small village with a beach near Padstow, north Cornwall, said: “I’ve never known it as busy as it is at the moment.

“We welcome them with open arms but I just wish that when they came they had some consideration for other people.

“We put bollards around to stop them parking on the junction, but they have parked the other side of the bollards on the road which makes it even worse than it was before.”

An anonymous caller to BBC Radio Cornwall said she and her husband “feel like prisoners in our own home” since a pop-up campsite was authorised next door to them for the first time this summer.

“It is so hectic. I can’t cope with it,” she added.

‘Anti-tourism’

Mr Bell said: “The biggest factor is the restriction on travelling abroad which has meant that most if not all of the accommodation is full with the only vacancies coming when people cancel, or get pinged.

“This summer is a one-off but it is also a bit of a siren to say we can’t be here again in normal circumstances.”

Mr Bell said an anti-tourist feeling has been growing in recent years among people for whom Cornwall is home.

He thinks this can be partly put down to the 10,000 or more additional properties that are now available to let through online platforms like AirBnB.

“Up until about 10 years ago we were losing bed stock in Cornwall. In 2018-19 we were holding numbers but we weren’t growing. And up until 2019 there wasn’t that much anti-tourism feeling.

“We don’t want to be here where the visitors aren’t getting a good experience, the locals are frustrated and the systems can’t cope.”

In order to “reduce the peak and capacity in August”, he wants every property being offered to let, to be officially registered “so we at least know what is going on”.

He said without a reduction “we will end up in a place we don’t want to go, a very dangerous place which is the quality of experience for the visitor will go down, the price will go down, and we will end up with over-tourism”.

“The last thing I want to see is Cornwall being destroyed by tourism.”

There are no beaches, no seagulls, and in some places there are more cows than people. This is summer 2021: the year that Britons sought social distancing as much as sun, sea and sand.

Josh Halliday www.theguardian.com

Demand for rural retreats in counties such as Worcestershire and Staffordshire has soared this summer as people swapped the Algarve and Costa del Sol for the countryside, data from travel websites shows.

Camping and caravan trips to Staffordshire – which is nearly 100 miles from the nearest beach – have increased by 300% compared with 2019, according to pitchup.com, while bookings in the landlocked counties of Worcestershire and Cambridgeshire have more than doubled.

The traditional honeypot resorts of Devon and Cornwall, which together attract about 10 million tourists a year, have seen the usual influx of visitors this summer. But nervousness around Covid-19 has meant that some of the UK’s less-obvious – and, crucially, quieter – destinations have enjoyed a huge tourism boost.

“There’s an element of anxiety as people are emerging from lockdown,” said Dan Yates, the founder of pitchup.com. “People are tiptoeing an hour away for one or two nights … and that’s why you’re seeing counties like Worcestershire seeing the demand as well as continued demand for places like the Lake District, Devon and Cornwall.”

Uncertainty around the UK’s ever-changing travel restrictions has meant millions of people have ditched their annual foreign getaway. AirBnB said domestic holidays account for 82% of nights booked so far this year. And rural retreats are becoming vastly more popular, accounting for nearly half of all bookings this year compared with 23% in 2019.

In previous years, AirBnB’s most in-demand properties have been in exotic locations abroad: last year’s favourite was a Greek cave, and a Balian treehouse took top spot in 2019. This year’s hottest listing was a luxury “Pigsty” on a farm in Winchester (£200 a night, almost fully booked until January).

Although there is evidence of a rural renaissance, travel experts are reluctant to call time on the traditional bucket and spade holiday. All of the top 10 searched-for towns on campsites.co.uk this summer was a beach resort, said the website’s founder, Martin Smith. Newquay, one of Cornwall’s rowdier spots, was the most sought after destination.

Away from the campsites, however, people have looked for lesser-known retreats as many hotels and short-term lets in Devon and Cornwall have been fully booked for months. None of AirBnB’s top trending seaside destinations this summer were on the popular south-west coast.

Instead, tourists have swarmed on the seaside resorts of Seaburn, near Sunderland, and Ingoldmells and Sandilands, near Skegness, according to the site. On the south coast, Sandgate in Kent and Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex had the biggest increase in bookings.

On the Isle of Anglesey, an astronomical rise in visitors has not been wholly welcomed. Campers have been pitching up illegally on beaches and private land, some leaving behind rubbish and creating a huge drain on resources, said Michael Thomas, the council’s tourism manager.

“It’s great that there has been a massive increase in visitors,” he said. “The downside to this is a lot of people are turning up with motorhomes and tents without booking places and they’re putting a massive pressure on our infrastructure. We’ve probably got a 500% increase [in visitors] because people are coming in the hope they will get somewhere and then we’re faced with the cleanup.”

In Staffordshire, however, tourism officials were over the moon with a near-300% rise in campsite bookings. The county has been busy promoting its many jewels since lockdown restrictions began to ease in April. Its gems include the rolling hills of Cannock Chase and Peak District, as well as the theme parks Alton Towers and Drayton Manor.

Philip White, the deputy leader of Staffordshire county council, said on Friday he was overjoyed to see people discover the county’s lesser-known qualities: “The huge range of attractions in Staffordshire is well known, but the beauty of our countryside is one of the UK’s best-kept secrets. We’ve been focusing on telling people about what we have to offer, how easy it is to get here and all there is to do so we’re delighted to see it paying off.”

Anthony Mangnall, MP for Totnes & South Devon and Judy Pearce, leader of South Hams district council are the authors of Friday’s “Thunderer” column in  the Times.

Where do Neil Parish and Simon Jupp stand on this? – Owl

Anthony Mangnall, Judy Pearce www.thetimes.co.uk

South Devon is home to some of the most extraordinary views, landscapes and coastlines. As representatives at both a local and national level we are only too aware of the privilege that we have in speaking up for such a unique part of the country.

While our businesses, tourism and hospitality industries were put on hold during the worst of the pandemic, our previously deserted beaches are now packed, our high streets bustle with residents and tourists alike. As a result our local economy is booming. While this is welcome, it comes at a cost.

Such are the demands from the visitor economy that thousands of homes are being moved from long-term rentals to Airbnb lets. Many who live and work in the area are being issued with eviction notices so landlords can capitalise on the boom in holiday rentals. Only 16 properties are available for long-term rent in the district council area of South Hams, with a population of 86,000.

Wit and wisdom from our award-winning stable of columnists and guest writers, including Caitlin Moran, Matthew Parris, Rod Liddle and Dominic Lawson.

For years there has been a balance between holiday rentals and primary residences. That balance saw schools, hospitals and lifeboat stations (to name a few) catered to by locals. This is often no longer the case as all these and many other businesses struggle to find the staff they need. Towns and villages which are thronged in the summer are ghostly quiet in winter.

At a local and national level more needs to be done to return that balance between holiday homes and primary residences. First, we must introduce legislation to close the loophole that allows second homes, advertised as holiday rentals, to avoid council tax by registering for business rates and getting small business rate relief. Every holiday home puts pressure on local services and they must pay their share. We have campaigned vociferously for this change in the law and welcome the chancellor’s announcement earlier this year that he will do so but it cannot come soon enough.

Second, a nationwide survey should be conducted to gauge the impact of Airbnb-type rentals. This could include lost tax receipts and the effect on long-term rental markets in rural and urban areas.

Third, newbuilds must be built with local affordability targets in mind, including section 106 legal agreements that can be registered against the property title to ensure they are primary residences in perpetuity. We have already achieved this in Salcombe and look set to do so elsewhere in south Devon.

The visitor economy is hugely important to this area. We welcome it, but Devon and the southwest must have functioning communities that offer more than just a seasonal visitor economy.

This particular case illustrates that some new found freedoms, such as the freedom to enjoy the “night time economy”, still have the potential to become super spreading events.

Exeter at 571 new cases per 100,000 people, and rising, is also one of the cities with the highest rates in England. The pandemic is far from over. – Owl

A Covid-19 infection spike in Lincoln has been pinpointed to a nightclub in the city, health bosses have said.

BBC News 03/08/2021 www.bbc.co.uk

New cases increased by 83% to 649 in the week to 29 July, giving the area England’s highest infection rate of 654 per 100,000 people.

The Wharf and University district, a popular destination for bars, clubs and restaurants, recorded a rate of 1,140.

Natalie Liddle, from Public Health Lincolnshire, said the majority of cases were in people aged under 30.

“We are currently managing a cluster of outbreaks in and around Lincoln – and we’ve seen a particular increase in cases linked to the night-time economy,” she said.

“We are particularly dealing with one large outbreak at the moment, [and] that has impacted a large number of people.”

Ms Liddle declined to name the venue involved.

Ms Liddle, who is programme manager for infection prevention and control, said the outbreak had also coincided with a “natural spike” in case numbers, with Lincoln continuing to follow slightly behind the national trend in terms of peaks.

“Unfortunately for us, it’s coincided with us coming out of lockdown,” she said.

She urged anyone who had not taken up an offer of a jab to do so, adding that it was more important than ever, especially as there were now no rules regarding social distancing, testing or vaccination status for nightclubs.

“We don’t want to scaremonger but, for us, the biggest thing we can do right now is really amplify that message about the importance of the vaccine programme,” she added.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last month that people attending nightclubs and other large venues where crowds gather would be required to be fully vaccinated from the end of September.

Meanwhile, cases in most other parts of the county have fallen.

North East Lincolnshire has seen one of the sharpest drops with case rates decreasing by nearly 50% in the week to 29 July.

The area recorded a rate of 471 new infections per 100,000 people compared to 805 in the preceding seven days.

The England average currently stands at 292.