Clear guidelines must remain in place to help police restrictions

IN my local newspaper, the Kingsbridge Gazette of 14 January, there was a report that, in a discussion about people visiting second homes during lockdown, a police sergeant told Dartmouth Town Council that “Our biggest problem... is proving when they came down. There were certain dates that you could come down.”

That’s absolutely not true, but you can’t really blame the sergeant for his confusion. Regulations have changed regularly over the past year as we’ve gone through three lockdowns and various levels ‘tiering’ while the government tried to get the coronavirus under control. What he said may (or may not) have been accurate at some point during that period.

There are about 37,000 second homes in Devon and Cornwall and while we residents have some concerns about this, it is the case that - under normal circumstances - their owners can visit as often as they like.

But these are not normal circumstances.

To quote the Devon and Cornwall Police website, at the moment

“You must stay at home as much as possible and only leave if you have a reasonable excuse.

This means that overnight stays away from your primary residence are not permitted, including in a holiday home or second home, unless you have a reasonable excuse.” And those reasonable excuses are very specific and limited.

It would greatly help the police, who are already under immense pressure caused by ten years of under-funding, if these clear guidelines remain in place, rather than being changed if and when there is a slight relaxation of the lockdown generally.

Brian Blake Lib Dem Candidate for Devon and Cornwall Police Commissioner