Hampshire Constabulary has said that Police officers will not be preventing people from travelling from the mainland to the Isle of Wight, but that the force is working with ferry operators and partner agencies to ensure that the public is informed about the restrictions in place.
The Isle of Wight, which currently sits in a Tier 1 restriction, is an inviting safe haven for those looking to escape the tougher restrictions elsewhere in the country. The midnight ferries on Saturday night were busier than normal, as reported by Island Echo.
According to the Hampshire Police Federation, mainland officers have been transported across the Solent to provide additional Policing resources on the Island to meet higher demand.
A van full of officers was seen to travel to the Island on the 15:00 ferry on Saturday afternoon.
Assistant Chief Constable Maggie Blyth has said:
“We will continue to maintain Covid-19 related patrols, as required, in addition to our usual resourcing as we move through the Christmas and New Year period. This is to address any problems that are identified to us and ensure that people are observing the restrictions that are in place at the given time to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Limiting the spread of infection is primarily the responsibility of public health, and not just down to the police, and we will continue to work with businesses, government, hospitality owners, local authorities, universities and others.
“I’d urge people to take personal responsibility over the next few weeks. Just because you can travel to different areas doesn’t mean that you have to. Please consider this before putting yourself and your loved ones at risk. I’d also echo the message from Isle of Wight Council to think about how essential your journey is before travelling between the Island and a tier three area, unless it is for work, health or other exempt reasons”.
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This is good news because we live in a democratic society!!!NOT A DICTATORSHIP!!!!!! NOT YET ANYWAY…
Thumbs down for a DICTATORSHIP or thumbs up for DEMOCRACY?????
Come on and vote!!!
Dictatorship please – at least dictators are honest enough not to pretend that your opinion counts.
There have been over 4000 mutations in the virus The one Hancock announced was discovered in Sept As of 13 Dec, 1108 cases with this variant had been identified in the UK in nearly 60 different local authorities. That’s 0.07% of all cases since discovery. FACTS.
Time to disobey !
Time to take direct action
We will
Absolute disgrace it is obvious to anyone with a brain that there will be those who ignore the rules and will travel from Portsmouth area to the Island to socialise and drink and without doubt will bring Covid-19 with them which will result in cases spiking our one small hospital overwhelmed whilst the Police continued to say its not there JOB!
Come on it needs a team approach from everyone :Police :Council :Ferry Companies and for people both side of the water to act responsibly.
Well watch this space….we will all be paying the price once the selfish idiots return back to the island …its a pandemic ….of course you should have the power to stop non essential travel
No wonder the virus is spreading like it is ….and islanders have to just put up and shut up…by the looks of it
I remember paying a chunk of my council tax towards the police. I thought one of their tasks was to keep us safe. But they are saying its not their job. Mmmm can i get a tax discount next year? Maybe ive got it all wrong. I’m sure somebody will put me right.
About time the police did their job and stopped people coming to the Island. Don’t tell me that they haven’t the manpower cos they have enough people to stop cars and now even e-scooters.
Does illiterate cover ‘inbred’
Well if Pompey is too hard for it to spell no chance of getting Portsmouth right then. It is a really good advert for Euthanasia
I see the inbred trolls can’t handle the truth.lmao
Get the pubs to only serve islanders cos they will lose out in the end when we go into another lock down
You should know being one big bumhole
Red Funnel was packed with family’s and dogs yesterday 20th excited about their Christmas holiday. Some Islanders are worried, no need to be rude. Be kind people X
You won’t be kind if your family member gets the virus
Don’t worry – the RF timetable for Christmas day makes it impossible to stay on the island for more than a couple of hours (Which is still better than the 30 minutes it gives Islanders wanting to travel to the mainland)
On a side note I see that the government are refunding train and coach fares but have completely ignored ferries.
Being able to get a credit note that forces me to make a booking by the end of March when I don’t even know if I’ll be able to travel is useless to me.
I’m sure I read the Wightlink ( and presumably RF) will give refunds…msg them…
So why should we be forced too obey any rules if ignorant people can just come over and screw up all our efforts.redic
Come on good people of the island.
Pompy blue is obviously trying to get your backs up. Ignore them and they’ll go away.
The poor guy or girl can’t even spell their so called home town correctly. Bless them.
That one also has problems with ‘there’ and ‘their’.
Could you explain your comment to the class please JHVF
The correct their was used – their equals belonging to… there equals over there
Thank you Benny.
A government rule do not travel from a tier 4 zone, so the police’s answer is ship a van load of officers from a tier 4 area to a tier 1 area “to address any problems that are identified to us and ensure that people are observing the restrictions that are in place at the given time to prevent the spread of the virus.”
The problem is tier 4 people breaking the rules and travelling out of their zone, stopping (or reminding them of the rules) once in this tier one zone is not ensuring the people are observing the restrictions, the van load of officers should be at the mainland ferry ports turning the restriction breakers away, that is the only way the police will help prevent the spread of the virus.
Come on Bob get the police to do their job and protect the people you represent.
Problem is the rules aren’t law
football game rules aren’t law but the ref applies the rules, you can get a red card and be sent off, perhaps we should give them the same treatment a red card and send them HOME before they get on a ferry
Met a lovely chap in Morrison’s car park directing the traffic today .. he told me he had been sent over here from London for 3 days for the job – said he couldn’t believe there had been trouble over here!
We don’t need the police this side of the solent, they should be at ferry ports on the mainland.
Should be asking people if they can show an Isle of Wight drivers licence or they can check the address where the car is taxed to, if can’t show or nit from here then don’t let them onboard the ferries.
This is the only way to keep on top of it here. Either that or we will be going into
a higher tier very quickly.
Too True !! how many of st mary’s 6 icu beds need to be occupied before we are tier 4, with all these covidiots coming to the island they will be full by christmas day.
So Matt halfcock seems to be lying again,like social distancing. If the police can’t stop you, then it isn’t law! And you people follow what these liars tell you?!. This whole covid virus plandemic will not end well ,for any of us!
If the police cannot enforce the law then don’t waste time and annoy everybody by advising about it.
Utterly useless waste of police time. No wonder crime goes undetected.
I say stop the Ferries and see how quickly the shops on the Island empty out.
Then us Overners can see how we will be treated.
So these rules are not law then and anyone can do anything they want wherever they want whenever they want,people need to realise this and that if there were a true pandemic with many more deaths this year than any other which there is not,it would be law
Strange that the police in Wales and Cornwall, to name but two, have actually turned people away from crossing borders .. so why can’t the force in this part of the country do the same? Seems they are just paying lip service in an advisory capacity. May just as well have let the officers have their rest days and not bother.
IOW COVID cases up 338% from last week
I fear the new strain is already with us and likely to go to Tier 3/4 soon