Guidance that warned people not to travel in or out of Bolton other than for essential journeys is being scrapped and rewritten by the government in a screeching U-turn.
At a stormy meeting with Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries earlier today, councils were told the wording - which had appeared on the government’s website on Friday but was not spotted until last night - was to be changed.
It came just a few hours after cabinet minister Therese Coffey appeared on Good Morning Britain and claimed to be 'surprised people think this has come out of the blue', arguing it had merely formalised the general advice to people in Bolton that caution should be exercised.
However the wording, which told people to 'avoid travelling in and out of' Bolton, Bedford, Leicester, Kirklees, North Tyneside, Hounslow and Burnley apart from essential visits for work or school, enraged local government and came as a complete shock to people living in the areas.
An urgent meeting was called with the Deputy DCMO and other senior figures for lunchtime, attended by directors of public health and chief executives from the places in question.
One local government source said they were then told the wording had never been intended to read as localised travel restrictions and that ‘the messages will be clarified’.
Another said nobody had so far explained how the advice had come to be published, but that it would now be redrafted by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Meanwhile Leicester’s director of public health, whose area - like Bolton - was one of those listed as subject to travel restriction advice, also confirmed the u-turn.
Professor Ivan Browne said: “We had an urgent meeting with Government reps and other affected local authorities today, after we became aware that the Government had updated its website to include specific advice around Leicester and some other areas where the new Covid-19 variant has been identified as spreading.
“These officials confirmed there are no restrictions on travel in or out of each of our areas and it was a mistake to suggest there was.
"There are no local lockdowns and there is no justification for Leicester to be treated differently to the rest of the country.
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“No-one from the Department of Health and Social Care or Public Health England contacted us about this advice, to explain the rationale behind it or give any other information. As it stands, Leicester has lower rates of the variant than other parts of the country, and we have a plan in place for stepping up our vaccination rate as agreed with the Government last week.”
Blackburn with Darwen's public health director, Professor Dominic Harrison, and the borough's leadership also issued a statement confirming 'there are no restrictions on travel in or out of Blackburn with Darwen'.
"There are no local lockdowns," they added.
The meeting this lunchtime with senior government, public health and NHS officials was said to be stormy, with senior figures from the eight affected areas demanding to know why the guidance had appeared without their knowledge.
Afterwards Bolton council’s leader David Greenhalgh told a Greater Manchester press conference that there was no local lockdown and no legislation to enforce travel restrictions, but stopped short of saying the guidance on the government website would be changed.
However it is understood government is now in the process of doing so.
Both Mr Greenhalgh and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham reiterated their opposition to any form of localised lockdowns and said they had also written to the government asking for flexibility so that schools in Bolton can still require pupils to wear masks as national measures ease, given the high Covid rates among children under 15.
The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
