COUNCIL leader David Greenhalgh has pleaded with the government not to enforce a Bolton lockdown.

The Indian variant of Covid-19 is causing a spike in infections, with Bolton heavily affected.

Cllr Greenhalgh said: “Yes, our rates of the Indian variant are going up, but while hospitalisations remain low and all evidence points to the vaccine holding, the administration’s message to government is ‘do not lock us down. Do not take us out of the roadmap.

“The majority of our cases are in their teens, 20s and 30s. Send us more vaccinations and allow us to vaccinate 18 years-plus now, that is the answer, not further restrictions.

“We have been here before. All that will happen is people will travel outside the borough, sometimes 50 yards up the road across a boundary to access hospitality.

“It does not work. And our hospitality is left struggling again, and on its knees.”

“More targeted vaccines please and allow us to reopen,” said Cllr Greenhalgh.

The government has refused to rule out local lockdowns returning.

Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have both been quizzed over local lockdowns returning, with both refusing to rule out them being brought back.

Bolton was placed under local lockdown restrictions for much of the pandemic, within both a regional tier system with the rest of Greater Manchester and a specific borough lockdown last September.

Asked if local lockdowns were possible, Mr Johnson said: “There are a range of things we could do, we want to make sure we grip it.

"Obviously there’s surge testing, there’s surge tracing.”

He added: “If we have to do other things, then of course the public would want us to rule nothing out.

"We have always been clear we would be led by the data.

“At the moment, I can see nothing that dissuades me from thinking we will be able to go ahead on Monday and indeed on June 21, everywhere, but there may be things we have to do locally and we will not hesitate to do them if that is the advice we get.”

Cllr Andy Morgan, Bolton Council cabinet member for adult social services, also backs offering the vaccine to over-16s to stop the spread of the virus.

He said: “I think we need to put the brakes on a bit, this rise in cases is not as severe as previous times, when nobody was vaccinated as well.

“It would be devastating to go into another lockdown. Restaurants and pubs are all gearing up to open again so going into another sort of local lockdown would be awful. The point of a lockdown is to protect the NHS, which is not being overrun anymore.”

Cllr Nick Peel, Labour group leader, said: “I raised local lockdowns at a recovery group meeting and I was assured it would not be an option. I honestly think a continuation of restrictions, especially for businesses, would have devastating effects.”