'Border communities have been completely forgotten about'

On the fringes of the Forest of Dean, one step too many in the wrong direction could see residents fined or even arrested.

Why? Because the villages which sit parallel on the Gloucestershire border of England and Wales are now under different Covid regulations as a result of the current 17-day Welsh “firebreak” lockdown.

Pubs, bars and restaurants, gyms and all non-essential shops were made to close on October 23 until November 9 in efforts to curb an increase of coronavirus cases in Wales.

Across the border, people are only allowed to leave their house for a few reasons, such as to go to the shops to buy essential food and medication, similar to during the first lockdown in March.

But in Sedbury. residents the division has left them facing conflicting guidelines, as the Forest of Dean – and Gloucestershire – has only a few restrictions including sticking to groups of six people inside and outside.

“It seems like border communities have been completely forgotten about,” Sedbury resident Catherine West told the LDRS in the local pub The Village Inn.

Villagers said people living on the England side of the border were carrying their council tax bills to prove to police they were living in England, and that “people were coming to this pub from Cardiff last weekend for a drink”.

Tim Gwilliam, the leader of Forest of Dean District Council, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this week to say businesses in the district are not able to access the support the support Welsh businesses are able to.

He fears there would be a “prolonged downturn” of the Forest’s tourism industry, with knock-on effects on employment and the wider economy, if the Government did not design a “bespoke package of support” for areas like the Forest of Dean.

The LDRS spoke to locals in Sebdury, a small village which is by the border of England and Wales a week after the Wales lockdown was announced.

Catherine and David West both live in Sedbury but said mostly everything they need to go to, from supermarkets to pharmacy, is in Wales.

Catherine West said: “They haven’t set out very clearly for any of the communities that live on the border [the restrictions]. That also goes for people living in Wales who utilise English shops, pharmacies or whatever. It so happens that all our amenities are over the border in Wales.

“But if you go further up the border it works the other way, where the Welsh communities most of their facilities such as the local supermarket could be in England.

“The Welsh Assembly haven’t come down and said to border communities ‘it is okay, you can still do that.’ It seems like border communities have been completely forgotten about.”

David West said: “People travel across the border to schools here, they come across from Chepstow. Some teachers come from Bristol, from here and from Wales. What are they going to do? Get stopped on the border?

“There are people round here who are carrying their council tax bill, so if they get stopped and told ‘you’ve got an NP postcode, you shouldn’t be here’, they show they pay their council tax to Forest of Dean District Council.

“When the lockdown started last week there were people coming from Wales up to here from Cardiff because it was the nearest place to get a drink. It is a bit desperate.

“None of the people doing this can think clearly. They thought ‘what are the consequences? Let’s do it anyway,’ then they keep rowing back.”

Michelle Bushell, a carer for Monmouthshire County Council but lives in the Forest, has to keep going back and forth the two countries for her job and has been stopped by police.

She said: “I live in England but I have a Newport postcode. When I was stopped, he accused me of coming from Wales but my postcode is Newport.

He wasn’t happy unless I showed him my driver’s licence. ”

“If they did stop me for whatever reason, the people I care for would have no care. Some people haven’t got anybody, no family. We would be the only people they see all day.”

Paul Davies is a sales manager for food delivery service Charles Saunders, based in Yate, said he can’t travel into Wales where all his customers are but can travel through it to his office.

He said: “Our delivery service have to travel from Yate into Wales for hospitals to send food, PPE and hand sanitisers. Effectively, I can’t work in Wales or home. Although I count as a key worker, I am not supposed to be travelling from England into Cardiff, for example. The rules are very confusing.”

Hairdresser Laura Poyntz-Davie said she had to quickly rearrange all her appointments to make sure her Welsh customers could be seen before the lockdown came into force.

She said:  “A lot of my clients are from the English side. A few are from Wales but I had to quickly rearrange them because they’re saying we could get a £10,000 fine if we have someone from Wales during its lockdown. It is just a bit confusing, really.”