On Thursday 30th July Health Secretary announced funding worth £3m to boost businesses in Leicestershire grappling with the longstanding lockdown clamped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Matt Hancock’s confirmation of the extra money in a letter to Harborough MP NEil O'Brien appears after Leicester was subjected to a second lockdown following a sustained surge in the number of coronavirus cases. Leicester is slated to receive £2.6m, while Oadby and Wigston will share the remaining £400,000.
According to the Department of Health and Social Care, restaurants, cafes, bars and hairdressers in Leicester can trade again from Monday 3rd August but leisure centres, gyms and pools must remain closed. Cinemas and museums are also allowed to open and religious ceremonies can be held, a spokesman added. Welcoming the Government clarification on the lockdown restrictions, Claudia Webbe, MP for Leicester East, tweeted,
“It will be illegal for people who do not live together to meet in a private home or garden…you should not host or visit people you do not live with, unless they are in your support bubble. You should not visit someone’s home or garden in or outside of the restricted area.”
On 30th July, Thursday, the mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, had claimed that the central government had “messed about” with the city officials and following the announcement called for greater "clarity" on what city residents can do. Addressing a news conference on Friday, he said,
"What we need is to understand what can open and when it can open, understand what we can do about meeting up with family and friends and where they can do that; and what is particularly unclear is what the travel restrictions are going to be."
