People urged to stick to lockdown rules in Hampshire this Easter

There have been some blatant breaches since restrictions eased this week

Author: Charlotte FisherPublished 2nd Apr 2021

Ahead of the Easter bank holiday Hampshire Police is urging people to stick to the coronavirus restrictions.

Six people can now meet outdoors and the force has already seen some blatant breaches in the county this week.

We've spoken to Superintendent Darren Miller - the tactical lead for the Covid-19 response at Hampshire Police.

He told us the new rules do make tackling breaches a little bit harder but says enforcement will now be a last resort:

"It does make it a little more tricky than it has been.

"But, we will continue to approach this in a four stage response.

"We will engage with people, so we may come and talk to you, we'd explain if we think there may be a breach, encourage you to comply and do the right thing."

He added that compliance in Hampshire has been a challenge:

"We do obviously have a number of reports from members of the public telling us where they're seeing breaches and we will respond to those where appropriate to do so.

"Since the changes on Monday, I'm quite pleased to report in the main people have been compliant.

"We've only had a handful of what we would call, blatant breaches recently."

Easter

The four-day bank holiday weekend is usually busy for police and as restrictions have eased Superintendent Miller isn't expecting this year to be any different.

"I think in light on where we are on the roadmap it will be busy.

"We will have officers out and about, as we normally would over a bank holiday weekend.

"We're encouraging officers to speak to people, engage with them and talk to them."

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Greatest Hits Radio app.