Mansfield MP shares people's frustrations at increased restrictions - but urges everyone to stick to new rules

I know it has been really hard for a lot of people.

We all need to do what we have been doing and follow the guidelines to make sure we keep our friends and family safe, and to give our area the best chance of recovery.

Starting this week we have to have further restrictions across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

I absolutely understand people’s frustrations and worries about the increase in the figures and how local lockdown would impact on them.

I argued all last week that Mansfield should have been treated separately from the City, where figures have spiralled out of control.

Our numbers are rising, but at the minute are only just more than 10 per cent of those in Nottingham itself.

But, unfortunately, the public health officials said on Monday that these were to be Nottinghamshire-wide restrictions.

This is extremely disappointing for Mansfield and Warsop and I share the frustration that many people feel.

I’ve asked the PM directly to ensure that we’re not permanently linked to the city’s figures in this way, and that our area can be regularly reviewed so we can keep this to a minimum.

That requires us all to do our bit too and to follow these new rules.

It is worth noting though that this isn’t a ‘lockdown’ in Nottinghamshire, and in this new three-tier system the truth is that the very high figures in the city could easily have seen us put in to the highest ‘very high’ risk tier with much tougher restrictions.

As it stands Nottinghamshire is the middle tier.

In practice this means that means we are unable to mix with other households indoors in order to reduce household to household transmission and the ‘rule of six’ still applies for socialising in outdoor settings.

It doesn’t affect things like outdoor sports, for example, in ‘Covid-secure’ environments and you can still have a ‘support bubble’ for vital childcare or to care for vulnerable relatives.

I know this isn’t what many people want to hear, and I will continue to raise this with Government as I still don’t believe Mansfield and Warsop should be placed under the same restrictions as Nottingham City as the figures stand.

However, we all need to stay safe and follow the guidelines and hopefully we can be out of the restrictions as soon as possible.

I will keep doing all I can in Parliament to raise this with ministers. In the meantime I hope everyone stays safe.

Ben Bradley is MP for Mansfield.