PA Media

A Leicester shop owner has spoken of his frustration after his business fell within 500 yards of the border for new lockdown restrictions, leaving him forced to shut his doors a week after reopening.

James West, 25, sole proprietor of Thurmaston Design and Print Co in Thurmaston village, said he had opened the store this morning unsure how long he would be able to keep doing business.

Image source, James West/PA Wire

Eventually details of the boundaries were published, confirming that he would have to close once more.

"I am just in the bracket. So I opened up at 09:00, and have now closed an hour later," he told the PA news agency.

Mr West said he had been "greatly frustrated with the lack of guidance".

"I opened my shop last week for the first time and saw an instant increase in orders and now I worry this change will go back to no orders.

"I haven't been eligible for many of the government funding due to not quite being open for three years," he said.

Frank Keogh
BBC Sport

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has confirmed racing in Leicester will go ahead today.

A nine-race fixture will take place from 16:40 today, with no spectators allowed at the track.

The BHA said, external: "The fixture will be held behind closed doors and with the existing strict health screening and social distancing measures in place."

Image source, PA Media

PA Media

Leicester's director of public health, Dr Ivan Browne, has said Leicester will experience an "intensification" of the public health messaging around coronavirus restrictions.

He said people in the city should continue adhering to the two-metre rule, washing their hands regularly and wearing face coverings in public places, while some restrictions are lifted elsewhere in the UK.

Speaking at a press conference in Leicester, he added: "Now that we are getting postcode data, that's been hugely helpful for us.

"My team have crunched that data and we are now getting to that point where we are down to local areas, so that means we can have a real good attempt to try and make sure we are tailoring our messages and we are providing the testing resources that are needed.

"We're asking the people of Leicester to continue and to push harder. We recognise that it is an impact on their lives, but from a public health point of view we really want to do everything that we can to reduce the numbers that we're seeing."

David Pittam
BBC News Online

The co-owner of Leicester Coffee House said they were already cautious about fully reopening so the new lockdown rules won't change much.

Gail Brown, 45, said the severity of the situation in Leicester has been a "bit shocking" and agrees the lockdown is the right thing to do.

"A sad thing but the right thing - we've got to think of the safety of our community," she said.

Ms Brown said the last week had been "like business as usual" with everyone working towards reopening.

She said: "I was talking to customers and it was very mixed. Some didn't really believe it [the spike in cases] and were looking forward to getting back to normal. Others thought it was still not safe."

Navtej Johal
East Midlands Today reporter

Sir Peter Soulsby, mayor of Leicester, is now addressing the media in a press conference.

He repeats that it took “a long time” to get the data from the government and says that they now have it with the “promise of more to come”.

He said what they got from the health secretary last night was “more than what they expected”.

The mayor believes the local lockdown has a “realistic prospect of being effective”.

Regarding the source of outbreaks in the community, he said the council doesn’t have satisfactory answers yet.

BBC Radio Leicester

A restaurant owner has questioned whether a local lockdown in Leicester is warranted.

Dharmesh Lakhani, who runs a restaurant in the well-known Golden Mile area of Leicester, said he was "very disappointed" by extended lockdown measures.

He has also queried Health Secretary Matt Hancock's assertion that the city had 10% of all positive cases in the country in the past week.

He said: "That seem like an astronomical number. Are we not doing testing in other cities? It just makes you wonder."

Leicester will now be expected to follow different rules to the rest of England, but Mr Lakhani fears this may not get translated to all residents.

He questioned: "Are people being briefed in enough languages? We all know we have a fantastic, diverse city, but are the messages getting across?"

Mr Hancock told the House of Commons last night both Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council would get "extra funding" to enhance communications to residents on Covid-19 in all relevant languages.

Samantha Noble
BBC News Online

A man who works at a DIY store in Leicester said it is "no real surprise" the city is subject to local lockdown measures.

Wayne Loydall, 57, said working in a retail environment, he has frequently seen people not following social distancing guidelines, and "pushing by" others.

He said: "I can only speak for Leicester but the amount of infections comes as no surprise.

"You are asked to marshal the store and when you ask some people to go down the one-way system, you get shouted at."

Image source, Wayne Loydall

On Friday when trying to enforce social distancing rules, he said a customer pushed him, which caused him to hit his head on a shelf and fall to the floor.

Mr Loydall, who reported the incident to police, said he ended up in hospital and was later told to have a week off work.

As the store is classed as an essential business, it will remain open and will not affect Mr Loydall returning to work next week.

Mr Loydall, who lives in Hinckley outside of the lockdown zone, added he was anxious to go back both because of the virus and concerns over customers adhering to social distancing rules.

The local lockdown means non-essential shops are shut and schools will close for most pupils in the city.

Alex Smith
BBC News Online

Labour has called on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to hold a press conference this afternoon on the lockdown in Leicester.

In a statement, Leicester South MP and shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said while the party supported the reintroduction of restrictions, there were a "number of outstanding questions".

These include, Mr Ashworth said, questions on how the government plans to implement tighter lockdown rules and "get the outbreak back under control".

Image source, Getty Images

"There is confusion about essential travel and what it means for people who travel to work outside the boundaries," he said.

"There is also no clarity about what extra resources will be put in place to increase testing capacity and what financial support will be available to businesses.

"The government must take firm leadership on this. This is the first local lockdown. People in Leicester - and across the country - are looking for ministers to take responsibility for this issue.

"Number 10 said the afternoon press conferences would now only take place if the government had 'something really important to say'. We believe the situation in Leicester meets that criteria. That is why I am urging the health secretary to hold a press conference this afternoon."

The city is the first to experience a local lockdown as officials try to curb its coronavirus cases.

Neil Heath
BBC News Online

The owner of a toy shop in Leicester said the knock-on effect of the fresh lockdown restrictions in Leicester is going to be "huge".

Joseph Hand runs Leicester Vintage, in New Bond Street, and had just taken part in a documentary about how small businesses have coped during the pandemic.

Image source, PA Media

"Leicester is known as this hotbed of small businesses that do really well... it's hard work for these places to keep going," he said.

"With this further lockdown, just as we're ready to get going again... the financial thing is a real worry for those going forward.

"For the cafe near me, the hairdressers, either side of my shop, the knock-on effect is huge."

Alex Smith
BBC News Online

Work still needs to be done to understand why Leicester has been so badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.

Latest figures obtained by Leicester City Council show 3,216 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in the city since the start of the pandemic.

Of those, 944 cases were reported in the last two weeks.

When asked about possible causes such as poverty, higher ethnic diversity, language difficulties and higher-density housing, Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast they were "familiar" to him.

He added: "We are still doing the work to understand exactly why the outbreak has been so bad in Leicester.

"But lots of the reasons that you mentioned just then are familiar to me and people will find them intuitive."

Mr Hancock said the government was looking at similar places but said the outbreak in the city was "significantly worse" than the next worst-hit place.

Alex Smith
BBC News Online

There are currently many unanswered questions about the localised lockdown in Leicester, but here's an explainer on how some aspects of it would work in practice.

Image source, PA Media

Amy Woodfield
BBC News

As we mentioned earlier, a map has been published showing where in Leicester and Leicestershire is affected by the increased lockdown restrictions.

The black outline shows the Leicester city boundaries, while the red outline highlights the area that will be subject to tighter lockdown restrictions.

Image source, Leicestershire County Council

In the Blaby district, that includes Braunstone Town (including Fosse Park), Glenfield, Glen Parva, Leicester Forest East and Thorpe Astley.

In Charnwood, it includes Birstall and Thurmaston, while all areas of Oadby and Wigston are included.

Leicestershire County Council said it is working on creating a postcode checker for those on the border who are uncertain if the new restrictions apply to them.

Gavin Bevis
BBC News

Dr Bharat Pankhania, a former consultant in communicable disease control at Public Health England, told BBC Radio 4 the situation in Leicester was "a reflection of a premature lifting of lockdown measures" which were "not strict enough in any case".

"Where you have a background level of circulating virus plus a susceptible population - one that has never had this infection before - they're all sitting targets," he said.

Image source, PA Media

He added: "It is well overdue that we have local control for local outbreaks because going forward six or nine months we will have such outbreaks in Manchester, Birmingham, other big cities, so it's better to grease up and oil the machinery of local responsiveness."

David Pittam
BBC News Online

The executive head of the Scholars Academy Trust, of which Launde Primary School in Oadby is a member, said about a third of the reception and Year One pupils did not come to school yesterday.

Inderjit Sandhu suspects this was because of coronavirus fears.

Miss Sandhu pointed out Leicestershire schools are closing next week anyway, so children will not be back until September.

Children in Year Six will be moving on to secondary school without getting the "milestone of leaving" with traditional send-off picnics and treats.

Miss Sandhu said she only found out about the localised lockdown from a BBC News alert and was still emailing the local authority trying to make arrangements at 21:50 on Monday.

"It was a surprise, we'd heard nothing whatsoever about it. But I don't know the right way to go about it, it's all so new.

"We've got to keep everyone safe, if we follow the guidance we're doing the right thing. It just shows how crazy it all is, but we're still smiling."

Miss Sandhu said she was "disappointed" as the children had enjoyed being back in school.

David Pittam
BBC News Online

Magda Raszowska, 34, mum of five-year-old Iman, said: "It's frustrating, obviously.

"It's like we're going back to March, that was the shocking thing.

"Closing schools, closing shops again. It's scary, it just shows how a second wave can be not far off.

"I'm sad for my kids and sad for myself. Obviously safety comes first, I understand that, we all do. [But] it seems very strict. As the mayor said, has Leicester been singled out now they're getting more cautious?"

David Pittam
BBC News Online

I've been at Launde Primary School in Oadby this morning, where parents have been reacting to news that schools in the city and surrounding areas will close on Thursday as part of tightened lockdown measures.

Teresa Lander, 51, a mother of a Year Six pupil at the school, said: "It's a surprise and a bit upsetting.

"It's worrying how much school they are missing, it's a massive gap in their learning if they're not in from March to September.

"The school has been so good, when my kid came back on the first day they said, 'I'm never going to catch it there'. They were having fun being back at school, it's disappointing for them. But you've got to respect it."

Amy Woodfield
BBC News

A map outlining what areas of Leicester and Leicestershire are included in the new lockdown restrictions has been published.

All of the city will remain under a stricter lockdown than the rest of England along with suburb towns including Glen Parva, Wigston and Birstall.

Image source, Leicestershire County Council

All non-essential businesses in these area will need to close or remain closed for an additional two weeks from today.

Schools will also close on Thursday to children whose parents are not key workers.

The localised lockdown is to be written into law, Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed earlier.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The owner of Chutney Ivy, an Indian restaurant on Halford Street in Leicester, said the new measures came as a "huge disappointment".

Image source, Google

Shaf Islam said: "We did spend a lot of money preparing for reopening.

"I called some staff back in from furlough to reset the restaurant with social distancing in mind."

Mr Islam said the restaurant was fully closed for about five weeks during the lockdown but reopened for takeaway and delivery to help make up for the "heavy losses" the business was facing.