Holiday family trapped by travel ban

A MAN and his pregnant wife faced a nervous wait to be evacuated from the Dominican Republic due to the coronavirus scare.

Former Rossendale resident James Perkins, was on a two-week break with his wife Adele, five-year-old daughter, dad, stepmum and step siblings.

When the group set out there were no indication of the speed in which coronavirus would spread, causing the World Health Organisation to declare a pandemic on March 12.

On March 16, the Dominican government imposed a month-long travel ban on all flights going in and out of Europe, leaving the family trapped with no idea when they will return home.

Speaking on Monday, the decision to cancel this year’s Bacup and Stacksteads Carnival planned for Sunday, June 28. Our event is 14 weeks away, lock downs are mooted at 12 weeks or even up to four months so whatever happens, our event with its crowds of 3,000 to 4,000 cannot proceed.”

She said BASCO is financially sound and there will be no impact on 2021’s event, adding: “We will be putting everything

James, 40, who booked his holiday with Tui, said that they had heard ‘nothing’ from the company and only found out because someone from the UK texted him with the news.

“At this moment we are stranded,” he said. “Our flight is not allowed to leave.

“We have been here 10 days, everything was normal when we set off. We didn’t know anything about it at all until someone from the UK texted to say their flight going out had been cancelled.

“There are people in the hotel who probably don’t even know that this has happened yet. We have had no information through the door or anything.”

The family is quickly running out of time to get home as Adele is 27 weeks into coming back with the biggest celebration Bacup and Stacksteads has ever seen and we are grateful that the £1,500 grant that has been donated for parade entries will be rolled over.”

A celebration party to mark the 30th anniversary of the Village Centre in Crawshawbooth has been postponed until the summer or early Autumn.

The Horse & Boo Theatre in Waterfoot has closed pregnant and will not be able to fly from 36 weeks.

If we were stuck here for a month it could become a real problem,” he said. “We will be cutting it fine.”

The family were visited on Monday afternoon by the Tui rep, who reportedly told tourists that a planned flight was going ahead but they will need to assess the situation ‘day by day’.

“They are saying that we need to keep coming to the rep to find out because they won’t notify us at our rooms,” he added.

“Planes are flying here empty.

“He (the rep) wants us to keep coming back to check when we can leave. His advice is ‘chill relax and enjoy your holiday”.

The family received a text to say that they will be ‘evacuated’ at some point. its doors until further notice, with all shows and events in the building cancelled until March 31.

Customers with tickets booked for events this month will receive a full refund via TicketSource. Customers are asked not to contact them - but wait to be contacted.

Ramsbottom Players have scrapped the next two plays in the season, “Be My Baby” and “We’ll Always Have Paris”. All tickets will be refunded.

Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary in Edenfield closed to the public from Wednesday due to the ongoing threat of Covid19. It is still possible to adopt an animal, but call the sanctuary first.

“We need to keep the risk as low as possible for our staff so we can continue to look after all our animals on site,” said operations manager Karen Weed.

●● The crowd around the TUI rep in the Dominican Republic as people try to get information