Northampton's night-time economy 'area of concern' for controlling town's Covid-19 infection rate, says leader

The leader of the borough council has called on residents to take responsibility on nights out and not let Northampton's night-time economy become a breeding ground for coronavirus.

Councillor Jonathan Nunn said local authorities faced a "moral dilemma" over whether they should take action to prevent the spread of the virus through the nighttime economy, and urged for residents to be responsible.

He said: "The biggest thing that worried me about a local lockdown is the damage it could pose to people's jobs and the economy.

"One of the areas I'm most concerned about is the risk of people spreading the virus while using the night-time economy.

"It's a moral dilemma. We have no intention nor do we have the power to prevent people from opening but I'm keen to tell people to take all the precautions."

Councillor Nunn has previously stated his belief that any pub or restaurant that does not enforce track-and-trace "has no regard for your safety" - but has also called on customers to "insist" that businesses take their details.

In the same conference, Mr Nunn said he believed the town will be able to avoid a local lockdown if it follows guidelines.

It came in the same week that Northampton-based sandwich factory Greencore reported an outbreak of nearly 300 cases, which the leader called "a disaster" for the town's infection figures.

He said: "In regards to that fork in the road I mentioned in previous weeks, I still believe that if we follow the guidelines stringently we still can avoid that local lockdown.

"Let's be absolutely honest, the 293 cases in this recent outbreak is absolutely dreadful. We've seen an outbreak of national significance - a disaster we can only call it in respect of its impact on our statistics."

"The reality of it is there is some mitigation in that it's around a factory rather than just scattered around the community."