Police boss calls for crackdown on Covid rule-breakers

* North Wales PCC Arfon Jones.

A police boss says a new get tough approach is essential to crack down on Covid rule-breakers who are putting lives at risk.

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones spoke out after “selfish” people flouted the regulations  and flocked to beauty spots across the region.

On Friday, two people had to be rescued North East Wales Search and Rescue (NEWSAR) team after becoming "disorientated" in severe weather conditions during a walk up Moel Famau on the Flintshire border.

The pair had gone for a walk from home but they raised the alarm by phoning the policing after losing their bearings as conditions deteriorated rapidly due to snow and poor visibility.

By Saturday lunchtime more than 100 cars had been turned away from Moel Famau, with some driving past "road closed" signs.

Meanwhile, in Snowdonia car parks have been closed to deter visitors.

Until now the police response has been guided by the so-called four Es, to engage and find out why the rules were being broken, explain the rules and rise, encourage people to behave responsibly and to only take enforcement action as a last resort.

The regulations allow for fixed penalty notices can be issued with fines ranging from £60 to £10,000.

According to Mr Jones, a former police inspector, it was now time for a tougher approach from the police and other agencies.

He said: “I would like to commend most people for behaving responsibly at this difficult time but those who choose not to can expect to be held to account.

“Unfortunately, there are far too many selfish people who are flouting the guidelines and they are turbo-charging the spread of this deadly virus.

“Their actions are totally irresponsible and life-threatening. If they have no regard for their own health, they should think of their loved ones.

“It is now time to forget  the mantra of Engage, Encourage and Educate and focus on Enforcement so we can clamp down on the Covid rule breakers and prevent this reckless behaviour.

“The stay home and stay safe message is all more important because the new mutant strain of Covid-19 is even more infectious.

“This has inevitably ramped up the threat of community transmission, with 70 per cent of cases in North Wales linked the new variant.

“As a consequence, the people of North Wales are at risk like never before.

“Being a police officer can be a difficult and dangerous at the best of times but North Police is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the pandemic.

“The last thing our officers need is for their time be wasted by selfish people who think they are above the law.

“It is totally unacceptable that our brave and selfless officers are themselves being put unnecessarily at risk as we have seen with examples of them getting stuck in the snow trying to come to the rescue of these foolish people.”

A Welsh Government spokesman  reinforced the message, saying: "Cases of coronavirus are very high in Wales at the moment and there is a new strain of the virus circulating, which is highly infectious and moving quickly.

"At alert level four, exercise should always be undertaken from home, unless you have special circumstances which requires some flexibility - such as disability or autism.

"The more people gather, the greater the risk of spreading or catching the virus."

Health Minister sets out Wales' vaccination strategy

Health Minister Vaughan Gething (pictured) has this afternoon published the Welsh Government's Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy, which sets out three key milestones.

It comes as the latest figures show more than 86,000 people have received the vaccine. Wales will publish daily vaccine figures from today.

The three milestones set out in the plan are:

• By mid-February – all care home residents and staff; frontline health and social care staff; everyone over 70 and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable will have been offered vaccination.
• By the Spring – vaccination will have been offered to all the other phase one priority groups. This is everyone over 50 and everyone who is at-risk because they have an underlying health condition.
• By the autumn – vaccination will have been offered to all other eligible adults in Wales, in line with any guidance issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

In total, around 2.5m people throughout Wales could be offered Covid vaccines by September, depending on further advice from the JCVI.

The strategy depends on sufficient and regular supplies of the vaccines being delivered. It will be kept under review in line with supply of the vaccine and any further advice from the JCVI.

Mr Gething said: "The Covid vaccines offer our best hope of a return to the normality we are looking forward to after such a difficult year, which has turned all our lives upside down.

“Delivering this vaccination programme to the people in Wales is a huge task but an enormous amount of work is going on to make it a success.

“We are making good progress with thousands more people being vaccinated every day.

“Over the coming week we will see the programme pick up further speed with more clinics opening and the first vaccines to be given by pharmacists.” 

To reach as many people as safely and as quickly as possible, we are continuing to accelerate the vaccination programme as more supplies of the two vaccines become available.

This includes:

• The number of mass vaccination centres increasing to 35 over the coming weeks, with at least one in each county. We started with seven, five weeks ago.
• Military support in the mass vaccination centres – there are 14 immunisers and 70 other personnel providing support.
• 100 GP practices providing clinics by the end of this week.
• The first pharmacies to provide the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will start vaccinating in North Wales in the next week.
• 14 mobile units, run by community nurses, which are taking the vaccine to care homes.
• Text message vaccination appointment reminders.

Dr Gillian Richardson, who leads the Covid vaccination programme in Wales, said: "This is the biggest vaccination programme Wales has ever seen and the NHS is working incredibly hard to get the vaccine to as many people as possible, safely and as quickly as we can. 

"People will be invited to come and have a vaccination at a clinic close to their home or at one of the mass vaccination centres. I know everyone is really keen to get their jab but please wait until you are contacted for your turn.

“Vaccination will give us a path out of this pandemic but it will take us a little while to protect all the people in Wales who need it – this is why it’s so important everyone continues to take steps to protect themselves and their families from coronavirus."

Data for the number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in Wales will be available every week day from today.

The daily release accounts for the total number of vaccines given until 10pm the previous day, which have been recorded on the COVID-19 Welsh Immunisation System. Actual figures will be higher due to ongoing data entry.

Police confirm man's body found at canal in Chirk

Leader Live is reporting this morning that police have confirmed the body of a man was found in Chirk over the weekend.

The story says: "North Wales Police was alerted to the discovery shortly before midday on Sunday.

"A spokesman for the force confirmed today: 'We were called at 11.55am, January 10, to reports of a body of a man was sadly found at the canal in Chirk.'" 

* To see the story, go to: https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/19001596.body-found-canal-chirk-police-confirm/

Contact tracing service is recruiting

The North Wales Contact Tracing Service is recruiting.

A spokesperson for the service said: "We will all be concerned to see the significant increases in Covid-19 infection rates over recent weeks and the spectre of the new variant of the virus.

"The roll out of the second vaccine has given us hope and a glimpse of light through the trees, but we are not out of the woods yet. 

"Contact tracing is a tried and tested method of controlling the spread of infectious diseases and it will continue to be a critical tool in our fight against the virus for some months to come.  

"It has been a very busy Christmas and New Year period for our Test Trace Protect team and they have been working hard to keep people safe and limit the spread of COVID-19. 

"We need people to join our teams of contact tracers and advisors, to make contact with residents across Wales who have tested positive for COVID-19 and the people they have been in contact with.

"If you are looking for a new job, a new challenge or simply want to do your bit to help during the pandemic we want to hear from you now."

* For more information about the North Wales Contact Tracing Service go to www.flintshire.gov.uk/NWCTS,

or to apply go to www.flintshire.gov.uk/jobs

North Wales police boss Arfon Jones to step down

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones (pictured) is standing down.

Mr Jones, the region’s second ever police and crime commissioner, has announced  he will be retiring at the next election whenever it is held.

The former police inspector swept to victory on a Plaid Cymru ticket in 2016 - with a thumping 25,000 majority.

According to Mr Jones, it was one of the proudest moments of his life when he was elected to lead the police force he had served for 30 years, both in uniform and as a detective.

The next election had originally been due to take place last May but the vote was put back a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Jones said: “The main reason I have decided not to seek re-election is that I will been working for more than 46 years by the time of the next election.

“As a result of the pandemic the term of office was extended for a year. I started thinking about this last May but I didn’t talk to anybody else about it until three months ago.

“I have achieved a lot in the past five years and it is going to be more difficult to make a difference next time because of the pandemic, Brexit and the fact that the term of office has been curtailed to three years.”

On his first official day in office, Mr Jones pledged to make tackling domestic violence a top priority.

A month later, he put his money where his mouth was when he announced at the North Wales Police and Crime Panel he was providing the money to ensure that North Wales Police was the first force in Wales to issue body worn video cameras– particularly useful in the aftermath of an incident of domestic abuse – to all front line officers.

One of the things that had changed most in between the time he retired as a police officer and taking office as police and crime commissioner was the fact that a lot of crime had moved online.

He had therefore also invested money and resources to tackle new and emerging threats like the sexual exploitation of vulnerable people, including children, and fraud.

As well as setting up a new Economic Crime Unit to crack down on fraudsters, the police and crime commissioner provided funding to pay for a dedicated officer to support fraud victims and, similarly, Mr Jones made history when he funded the appointment of the UK's first police support officer to help victims of modern slavery.

 

Both officers are based at the Victim Help Centre in St Asaph which receives funding from Mr Jones and provides support and advice for victims of crime from across North Wales.

As a long-time campaigner for drugs legislation reform, Mr Jones is also proud that he has helped to shift public opinion on the issue as well as launching a raft of pioneering initiatives.

Among them is the ground-breaking Checkpoint Cymru scheme – the first of its kind in Wales - to steer low-level offenders, including people caught with drugs for personal use, away from crime.

Then earlier this year Mr Jones was instrumental in the setting up of a pilot project in Flintshire when officers there became the first in Wales to carry a life-saving nasal spray called Naloxone which acts as an antidote to a drugs overdose.

Once the results of the trial are evaluated, the commissioner hopes the initiative can be rolled out across North Wales.

The biggest single decision taken by Mr Jones during his term of office was the appointment of a new Chief Constable and he is delighted with the “excellent leadership” since he got the top job.

Mr Jones said: “In fact, I’m just blown away by the professionalism of young officers that I’ve met over the last five years.

“Nothing stands still with policing. Our officers are having to deal with new and worrying trends like online crime and child sex abuse.  But these are not issues that that the police can tackle alone – for example, the Internet Service Providers can do a lot to prevent online grooming and the abuse of children.

“In an ever changing world, the criminals are adapting and the police have to adapt equally quickly which is why we have increased the staff in the Victim Help Centre.

“One of themes during my term in office has been the partnership with the Third Sector who deliver support for survivors and vulnerable people.

“I’m a big fan of the Third Sector. They deliver a service in the fraction of the time a public sector agency can. They are making a real difference to real people, especially in terms of providing support for survivors of domestic abuse. 

“I think one my proudest achievements was providing extra money to buy body worn videos.

“It’s proven to be a good decision because it has provided evidence that has helped in securing convictions on domestic violence and domestic abuse cases.

“The formation of the Modern Slavery Unit is another achievement of which I am proud and I made history when I appointed the first support officer to help modern slavery victims.

“Culturally, North Wales Police has changed over the past five years. The way the force operates now is around trauma and how it informs policing, with better services for vulnerable members of the community - whether they are offenders or victims.

“We’ve been addressing the causes of crime not just the symptoms and that’s the right thing to do. We are doing a great deal of preventative work by looking at Adverse Childhood Experiences which can have a massive impact on future behaviour.

“Invariably, the root cause is that something traumatic has happened in people’s lives, including being abused as children. Mental health issues go hand in hand with problematic drug use and people in that situation suffer from a whole raft of problems.

“One of the things I am most proud of is that the tide of public opinion around the drugs issue has changed and moved on.

“What I find most frustrating with the public sector is the fact that they’re reactive rather than preventative.

“We need to stop the revolving door of people going in and out of the Criminal Justice System. Rather that perpetuate the cycle of crime and punishment we need to break that vicious circle so there are fewer crimes and fewer victims.”

North Wales Police describe how they are enforcing lockdown

* The picture which illustrates the police post.

Police have taken to Facebook to describe how they are enforcing lockdown rues in the region.

Their post this afternoon (Sunday) says: "North Wales Police are continuing to urge communities to do the right thing by complying with the Welsh Government Level 4 restrictions this weekend.

"Individuals were arrested overnight and taken to custody for failing to provide their details for breaching the Covid restrictions.

"Police officers have been out across the region and are continuing to report for summons those who have travelled in breach of the restrictions.

"Superintendent Nick Evans said: 'Wales is under Alert Level 4 restrictions and infections are dangerously high. Our teams will therefore continue to target those who are blatantly breaching the rules, placing others at risk and putting further demand on our over-stretched NHS.

'Level 4 restrictions state that exercise should start and finish from home and that nobody should be travelling unless essential.

'The restrictions are in place to prevent the spread of the virus, protect the NHS and save lives. They apply to every single one of us and it’s disappointing to think that some do not believe the restrictions apply to them. The restrictions are all about nudging back the infection rate, so rule breaking, however small, could cost the life of yours or someone else’s loved one.'

"Further details around the Level 4 restrictions can be found via the Welsh Government website https://gov.wales/alert-level-4

"To report a possible breach of COVID-19 restrictions please go to https://www.northwales.police.uk/.../tell-us-about.../"

Berwyn Street roadworks begin tomorrow

Latest local roadworks alert from one-network is:

Berwyn Street, Llangollen, Denbighshire

11 January — 29 January

 

Delays likely - Traffic control (two-way signals)

 

Works location: A5, Berwyn Street, Llangollen

 

Works description: Refurbishment of Traffic Signals Pedestrian Crossing. Works to Include - Renewal of tactile paving, Renewal of underground cables, Renewal of Traffic Signal heads, Renewal of Road markings - Works between 09:00hrs and 16:00hrs

 

Responsibility for works: Welsh Government

 

Current status: Planned work about to start

 

Works reference: PD50120316161236645