In response to the latest announcement made by the Prime Minister on the evening of Saturday 31 October, Cllr Flower said, “The collective efforts of people across Dorset have kept us in Tier 1 up to now and while most people here have been compliant with the rules, the disease is spreading nationwide, including in the South West, and we must all act now to reduce the infection rate.

“This is undoubtedly a worrying time, so I want to reassure residents that Dorset Council stands ready, once again, to support our communities by continuing to provide essential services including paying out financial packages to businesses and supporting clinically vulnerable people.

“I’ll be able to make a further statement as soon as I know more detail on the level of support Government is offering to businesses and how the lockdown is likely to affect council services but I am hopeful most of our services, like bin collections and household recycling centres will be largely unaffected by this latest set of rules.

“Everyone wants to be able to join their families at Christmas which is why we must all do our best to obey the rules now. I am calling on the people of Dorset to pull together, as we have done before, to help each other and our communities through this second lockdown.”