SLOUGH’S head of police revealed Chalvey saw the most fines issued to rule-breakers flouting Covid-19 restrictions within the borough.
At an outbreak engagement board on December 8 (Tuesday), superintendent Gavin Wong, area commander for Slough, said his team issued the most fixed penalty notices (FPN) in Chalvey.
He said Chalvey is “the most heavily policed area in Slough at the moment”.
Last month, it was revealed officers had issued a total of 191 FPNs to people breaching restrictions within the borough, the most in the Thames Valley area.
Councillor Natasa Pantelic (Labour: Cippenham Meadows), lead member for health and wellbeing, said she and some of her colleagues have been receiving messages from residents about people congregating and flouting the restrictions in places like Chalvey.
READ MORE: Thames Valley Police reveals Slough saw the most Covid-19 fines issued
Mr Wong said: “We’re not having a huge number of calls to the service for breaches and that’s probably because it’s not as obvious than it was in the first lockdown – but we are still issuing FPNs, probably one a day on average.
“We are being proactive, and we will still encourage people to abide by the regulations.”
Up to three households can meet up during Christmas and the superintendent urged residents to try to cut contact with other people as much as possible.
He said: “The danger is you start off with three households and then people start breaking the rules of having four and then five.
“I think the message should be is ‘what you should be doing’”.
READ MORE: Coronavirus in Slough - Area with the fewest infections
Councillor Rob Anderson (Labour: Britwell and Northborough), lead member for transport and environmental services, echoed Supt Wong’s comments and said: “We really need people to understand that they can meet together at Christmas – but it’s a risk.
“One thing we do know from what we’ve seen from other countries is Canada has had it badly after their Labour Day in September and after their Thanksgiving in October.
“So, we know it’s going to be a bad January because people are going to start to come together and that message clearly isn’t out there of that thing about meeting with three households, it’s not per day for the five days.
“It is purely over the whole period. You can’t hop around from various parties on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.”
He added: “It is really just meant to be a way of making sure that nobody is alone on Christmas. It’s not an opportunity to party.”
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