Wales lockdown: ‘Non-essential’ items covered in shops and English cops set up border checkpoints as ‘firebreak’ begins
SHOPPERS in Wales vented their fury as "non-essential" items were covered up in supermarkets with the nation now beginning its "firebreak" lockdown.
Stores are now unable to sell clothes to customers and staff are being told to prioritise the sale of "important" essential goods during the 17-day lockdown.
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Meanwhile, police checkpoints are also being set up on a key section of the Wales-England border, officers in Gloucestershire confirmed.
Gloucestershire Constabulary will stop people travelling into Wales and encourage them to turn around if officers “are not satisfied with their explanation”.
If people do not turn around, the police said it will tell forces in Wales so that they can issue a fine.
Today, a stunned shopper took snaps of a section in a Tesco store being effectively cordoned off, with household items such as duvets shut away.
Staff could be seen covering up aisles and stopping shoppers from accessing the banned items for the next two weeks.
A shocked person commented: "Non-essential items being covered up in supermarkets in Wales. Has it really come to this?"
And another said: "Shops in Wales covering up ‘non-essential items’ ahead of tonight’s lockdown. Not entirely sure I understand the logic.";
Another shopper took an image a closed aisle in Lidl, Porthmadog.
It comes as:
- Sky New's Kay Burley clashed with a Welsh minister over essential items
- Revellers in Cardiff hit the town for one last night before the 'firebreak'
- Nicola Sturgeon revealed a strict five-tiered coronavirus system for Scotland
- Warrington is set to join Tier 3 next week with the toughest restrictions
- All areas of Britain have got an R rate above 1
Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said the rules on what can be sold and what can't will be "made clear" to supermarkets.
But it left businesses with just hours to put together strategies for the lockdown, which will run until November 9.
A confused shopper tweeted a picture of shelves being covered up, adding: "Shops in Wales right now! Unbelievable!"
A Tesco spokesperson said: “Our colleagues across Wales will be working incredibly hard today so we can comply with the Welsh Government’s ban on selling ‘non-essential’ goods to our customers from 6pm this evening.”
There's still no clarification on what counts as essential. However, today items including hairdryers, phone chargers, duvets and sheets were covered up in supermarkets.
Such items remained on sale throughout the first national lockdown.
Have you seen shops covering up "non-essential" items? Send in pictures and get in touch on 02077824368 or tips@the-sun.co.uk
All non-essential shops, pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels must shut altogether during the restrictions, which come into force today at 6pm.
Food shops, off-licences, pharmacies, banks and post offices are allowed to remain open.
Earlier today, Welsh ministers struggled to defend their "trolley police" rules - as it emerged people will only be able to buy 'essential items' during the 'firebreak' lockdown, which started at 6pm.
Welsh people will be ordered to stay at home unless they're exercising or have vital reasons to leave for the duration of the shutdown.
'HAS IT COME TO THIS?'
The new rules for Wales are much harsher than those currently used in England, even for areas in tier three.
Plans for the firebreak lockdown have been criticised as being too heavy-handed, with Tory MPs in Westminster saying the move is a "blunt instrument".
Mr Drakeford denied that asking supermarkets to only sell essential items during the firebreak lockdown because he favours restrictions and regulations.
He said: "It is a straightforward matter of fairness - we are in this together here in Wales.
"No individual and no organisation is above the effort that we are all required to make.
"That includes people who may believe that they themselves are beyond the law, and includes those organisations that are large and powerful."
He told a press conference in Cardiff that any suggestion that the ban, which was announced on Thursday, was based on his own politics was "nonsensical".
He said: "We are requiring many hundreds of small businesses to close on the high street right across Wales.
"We cannot do that and then allow supermarkets to sell goods that those people are unable to sell.
"And we are looking to minimise the amount of time that people spend out of their homes during this two-week period.
"This is not the time to be browsing around supermarkets looking for non-essential goods."
During an interview with Kay Burley on Sky News, Welsh minister Vaughan Gething tried to justify the decision.
"A supermarket selling clothes isn't essential," he said.
"We are looking to have a grown up understanding with them about what they can do so they go ahead and do that.'
"We don't want to get into a line by line going through thousands of of product items. That would be unusable from their point of view and ours," he said.
People in Wales will now have to:
- Follow strict stay at home orders
- Pubs, restaurants and all non-essential retail will be closed
- No meeting with anyone outside your household
- No alcohol sales after 10pm
- Leisure centres and services, including gyms, will have to close
- Professional sports will be able to continue
- Hairdressers and beauty services will have to close
- No gatherings will be allowed outdoors including Halloween and fireworks on Bonfire night
Andrew RT Davies, the Conservative shadow health minister, tweeted this week: "The power is going to their heads."
He later added: "Is a flagon of Strongbow deemed essential? What about some much-needed underpants if you're caught short?
"I do hope there is some published guidance on what the Labour commissars deem as essential."
The lockdown falls over the half-term holiday and extend for a week beyond that.
Primary schools will reopen as normal after the break and kids in secondary school in Year 7 and 8 will be able to go to school.
All other students will have to go back to home learning.
Mr Drakeford stressed that children were the "top priority" and childcare centres would be able to stay open throughout.
Under the law, firms conducting a business that provides a mixed set of services will be allowed to open if they cease conducting the service that must close.
The Sun Says
OUR congrats to Wales’s Labour Government leader Mark Drakeford, currently ahead in the arms race of Covid lunacy.
Not content with shutting his country down in a panic, he has banned supermarkets from selling “non-essential” items also sold by shops he closed.
Has he never bought anything online? The Labour genius has just handed Welsh supermarket takings to Amazon.
Drakeford is a useful pointer to how his party would govern nationally: Ineptly, rashly and without restraint.
What, we wonder, will he do if and when his 17-day shutdown — his “firebreak” — has no provable impact on Covid? Another 17 days?
Sadly, we fear it will go like this for many Welsh businesses:
Firebreak. Fire sale. Firings all round.
James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, said: "Retailers must not be forced to stop making products available to customers just because ministers don't think they're essential.
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"These regulations are badly thought out, providing little to no notice to retailers, and must be scrapped to avoid chaos in shops across Wales.
"The confusion and confrontations between customers and shopworkers that this rule will trigger will ultimately lead to more contacts and time spent in proximity to other people, which is the exact opposite of what ministers are aiming to achieve."