'We need a closed sign at the M55' says Blackpool Council's opposition leader

Almost 12,000 people had signed the petition, which was reported by The Gazette on Monday, by this morning, but Coun Simon Blackburn said: "Demanding the council do the impossible, like a local lockdown or closing the beaches, does the town and its residents a huge disservice."

He said it would be "demonstrably absurd" to "meaningfully barrier off or otherwise prevent access to seven miles of promenade or beach".

But his opposite number, Coun Tony Williams, the leader of the Conservatives in the resort, said: "We need a huge sign at the end of the M55 that says: 'Blackpool is closed - turn around'.

"We should have left the opening of Yeadon Way until the crisis is over and checked all vehicles coming into the town from other routes. The long tailbacks would soon dampen their enthusiasm to practice such stupidity.

"If this good weather continues, we can expect to see more of the same each week. Why should the good people of this town, who have on the whole obeyed the spirit of the lockdown, have to put up with hordes of mindless idiots trashing our resort?

"Get the barriers out and stop outsiders coming until all resources are back in place at the appropriate time."

Coun Williams said he had seen "shocking scenes" over the weekend, including "the total disregard for social distancing, our Promenade, parks, and beaches treated like a rubbish tip, car parked anywhere and everywhere, drinking in the streets, children going missing, and fools being rescued from a sandbank".

He added: "Why on Earth are we allowing people to treat our beautiful town so disgracefully?"

The petition came after another hot weekend which saw the resort's beaches and parks packed with families and couples, and as the Victoria Hospital's medical director said the number of Covid-related admissions there continues to rise.

Blackpool is one of the country's hotspots and, while deaths remain low, has one of the highest infection rates in England. Another key measure, the R rate, which shows how many people an infected person passes the virus on to on average, was above one last week - meaning infections would grow exponentially - but has since come down.

Despite Boris Johnson's Government easing the country out of strict lockdown measures by allowing people to meet outside in groups of up to six and to go on day trips, as long as they social distance, many residents are concerned about the impact on Blackpool, which has seen a surge in new cases recently.

Brian Pery, who launched the petition, said: "Blackpool has been invaded by people leaving our town filthy, not taking notice of spacing, [and] urinating in the streets.

"It only takes one to pass [the] virus to two more, then it escalates.

"Please consider, for the sake of our residents and future economy, to stop the so-called responsible people from not sticking to rules and close our town [to] them for at least four weeks to allow [the] virus here to stabilise.

"I ask [the] Government to seriously consider this ASAP."

Blackpool has one of the highest rates of infection in the country, official figures showed last week, with 445.8 people out of every 100,000 diagnosed with the virus. Nationally, that figure was just 269.6. Gazette analysis also revealed how the rate of new infections in Blackpool in the last two weeks was the third highest in the country.

At least 640 people living in the council area of Blackpool have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, plus 3,616 in Lancashire, which includes Fylde and Wyre. After dropping early last month, the number of daily new cases has risen sharply again recently.

Last week, the 'R' figure - the number of people each infected person will pass the virus onto, on average - hit 1.6, a sign that the number of people catching the infection is likely to continue to grow quickly. However, this week the figure, which is said to fluctuate regularly, is 0.5.

There have also been 185 confirmed and verified Covid-19-related deaths at the Vic, plus many more in local care homes.

Vic medic Dr Radhakrishna Shanbhag, who is a British Medical Association North West council member, said: "Not only does this mean we're suffering from a disproportionate amount of serious cases and deaths, but also that, as a consequence, gradual lockdown measures may be affected - prolonging the hurt caused to our local economy."

And Dr Jim Gardner, the Vic's medical director, warned "we are not seeing a decline in our overall numbers" of people being admitted to hospital with the coronavirus.

He said: "Looking at our numbers, what we are seeing is that, across the whole of the Fylde coast, we have had 1,117 positive diagnoses of Covid. And in our internal data - in our trust data - we are showing now 144 positive Covid patients.

"That is a higher number than last week so this is an important theme for us.

"The plateau is going along and, if anything, rising slightly, so a very important message is still: 'Abide by the Government's guidance and continue to take all of the necessary personal protective measures that we have talked about continuously'. We must keep doing it.

"But there is an important point about our data, in that the 144 picks up all patients who have ever been positive for Covid, and we know that within that 144 some of those patients are now negative."

Dr Gardner added: "Nevertheless, the theme is these numbers are remaining high. However, in our intensive care unit (ITU) today, we have three patients who are Covid positive, so our ITU usage is steady but low. And our High Dependency Unit (HDU) usage in terms of Covid positive is steady but low.

"But we still are seeing a too high a number of patients who are Covid positive and we need to remain very alert about that issue.

"On that similar theme, in terms of the death rate from Covid positive patients, we are seeing that at a much lower but steady level too."

Prof Ian Donald from the University of Liverpool, last week tweeted: "Perhaps the media at the [Government's] #dailybriefing could ask why it's safe to start to lift lockdown when hospital admissions in Blackpool and Liverpool are rising and before test and track are functional."

Visit Blackpool, the council's tourism arm, initially rebranded its social media accounts as 'Don't Visit Blackpool' as the lockdown got underway.

It now says 'Visit Blackpool Safely', with one tweet saying yesterday: "We are busy preparing for the time when we can welcome you back to Blackpool.

"In the meantime, keep safe and follow Government guidelines on social distancing to avoid the spread of coronavirus. Love, Blackpool."

A second message added: "If you plan to venture to the coast or any open spaces today, please don't leave any litter behind, if a bin is full take your litter home, leave only footprints."

Keith Ambler replied to call on chiefs to "think of your residents and stop inviting people in", while Mark Shenton said: "They can't stop visitors, they can only offer appropriate advice."

The Government's latest guidance said there is no restrictions on how far people can travel for their exercise or outdoor activity.

But it added: "You can travel to outdoor open space irrespective of distance, as long as you can return the same night and do not put others at risk because of services you may need in the time you are away."

On Sunday morning, a 65-foot ex-commercial fishing boat sank off the coast of Fleetwood, killing a man named in the media as Keith Chew Jnr, 40, from Accrington.

Two other men, a 70-year-old from Blackburn and 71-year-old from Accrington, also in east Lancashire, were saved as part of a major mercy mission.

Coastguard rescuers and beach patrol staff were called out to a number of emergencies over the weekend, involving "both" locals and tourists, one official said.

They included missing children in St Annes, who were from out of town, and a 17-year-old local teen who overdosed after taking recreational drugs - and drinking alcohol - during a party involving 60 youths on the sand dunes last night.

The UK's deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries told people to limit themselves to what is "sensible" rather than "possible" now that restrictions have been eased even further.

She said now is a "critical time" and urged people to ensure they did not contribute to a resurgence of the virus.

"Where we are seeing that Government is easing measures, the public really, really need to stick to those messages, and it is not just about what it is possible to do, it's about what is sensible to do, and what is sensible to do is have as few interactions as possible as you can with other people in all settings," she said.

"I think it's really important that people just try to use these measures sensibly for their own benefit, but don't risk transmission to other people."

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick insisted the Government's easing of restrictions was correct, despite criticism from scientific experts.

He said: "We're reasonably confident that the steps we've taken, and will be taking on Monday, will be manageable."

Referring to the R rate, or infection rate, of coronavirus, Mr Jenrick said: "We have to all continue to play our part in that, because the [national] rate of infection remains somewhere between 0.7 and 0.9 and the room for manoeuvre is quite limited."

Blackpool's director of public health, Dr Arif Rajpura, said in an approved statement that the R number in Blackpool was 1.6 last week - far higher than the Government's target of less than one - but has since dropped.

He said: "Using the R value at local authority level is somewhat unreliable because a small localised outbreak can lead to what appears to be a large increase.

"For example, a week ago the R value in Blackpool was 1.6; that has now dropped to 0.5.

"However, while this provides a useful means of monitoring direction of travel of infection rates, R values are more reliable at regional level.

"A single R value at a local level cannot be used on its own to inform decisions on easing of restrictions.

“The Government has determined that allowing people to exercise outdoors is a safe way of opening up society.

"The important thing now is for people to abide by the safe distancing regulations and hygiene advice while they are outside.

“That means avoiding queues where social distancing is not taking place, avoiding gatherings and regularly washing hands.

"That is the sensible approach to avoiding the spread of the virus.

“We will continue to instill that safe distancing message to residents and visitors to Blackpool, and remind those businesses and concessions that are allowed to open that they have also have a responsibility to adhere to this guidance.

“Ever since the lockdown was announced, we have maintained our stance that Blackpool is not yet open for business.

"Even when parts of our tourism industry are eventually allowed to open, the requirement for everyone to be cautious and continue to observe safe distancing will not go away.”

The Health Secretary Matt Hancock said lockdown measures could be reimposed nationally if necessary if the number of Covid-19 cases takes off again.

“We are attempting to move the system from these national, blanket measures to a more targeted approach – this is why test and trace is such an important part of that,” he said.

“But we have always said that we are prepared to reintroduce measures – whether that is nationally or in response to a localised outbreak – if that is necessary.”

To view Mr Pery's petition, visit change.org/p/uk-parliament-close-blackpool-to-protect-locals or click here.

One woman who signed it, Ellen Pinto-Hazell, said she and her partner are key workers.

"We've worked some ridiculously long hours in support of our elderly and the vulnerable," she said. "Both of us would love to take advantage of our hometown seafront but don't want to chance it at the moment."

And Nikola Gratrix added: "Not only are they virtually guaranteeing an increase in Covid-19, but leaving the beaches and Blackpool in general disgustingly dirty with all their rubbish they are too lazy to put in the bins."