Police patrol Cornish border... to catch drinkers from Devon

CORNISH police have laid on extra patrols to stop dri nkers f r om Devon popping over for a pint.

When England’s lockdown ends tomorrow, Cornwall will be the only county where it is legal to order a pint without a meal.

Officers are being sent to watch over the border as the tier system comes into force, with Cornwall in Tier One.

Pub staff have warned they are already taking phone calls from drinkers in neighbouring Devon, which will be in Tier Two, asking whether they can visit.

Yesterday, landlady Amy Newland at the White Hart in Chilsworthy, Cornwall, which is right on the Devon border, said: ‘People have been ringing me up from across the border in Plymouth already saying they are going to be popping over for a beer and asking what time we open.

‘It’s scary as we are just a small country pub and it is going to be very difficult for us to police. You don’t know where people are coming from.’

The Government has confirmed that anyone not living in Cornwall is forbidden to travel into Devon, either by road or sea, to go to the pub.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said ten ‘dedicated double- crewed units’ would be on patrol in cars, thanks to extra Covid funding from the Government. She added: ‘Their sole purpose will be to respond to Covid-related matters and these vehicles are additional to current response levels.’

She said funding was in place for the vehicles until March, adding that the police approach is to ‘engage, explain and encourage people to comply’.

Fines will be considered only as a last resort.

It is understood that the patrol cars will be sent out to deter rule-breakers, rather than to stop any pubgoers.

Craig Howe, owner of The Rising Sun just over the border in Gunnislake, Cornwall, said: ‘We do think people are going to be jumping over the border and we might have to put on extra staff to make sure everybody is sticking to the rules.’