The “majority” of businesses and residents in Nottinghamshire back tougher lockdown measures which come into force at midnight on Wednesday, October 28.
Nottingham city along with the boroughs of Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe will enter the toughest Tier 3 level controls which will see pubs and bars close – unless food is a key part of their business.
Nottingham will join Warrington as well as the Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Yorkshire in having fresh restrictions imposed in Tier 3.
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Households will also be banned from mixing indoors or in private gardens and beer gardens, affecting some 700,000 people across the city and three neighbouring local authority areas.
A package of financial support measures for affected businesses and workers, agreed with Government, is being put in place, in line with other areas where Tier 3 measures have been imposed.
Rushcliffe Borough Council leader Simon Robinson told the PA news agency he believed most people supported the measures.
He said people were showing “a lot of resilience, because people understand we need to get on top of the virus”.
Coun Robinson said: “The restrictions are currently being detailed now with Government.
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“It’s very complex, there’s a huge amount of work to be done.
“The restrictions will come in, effectively on Thursday.”
On any specific measures, he added: “We’ve taken the generic set of measures that they have for Tier 3.
“More specifically (those measures) are around things like hospitality, retail, serving of alcohol, for instance and those are specific ones we’ve been negotiating with Government.”
Mr Robinson explained an economic package was in “two sides”, with more money for councils’ enforcement teams to make sure people follow the rules, and grants for affected businesses.
He said: “Our offices are working right now to make sure we can get that money out there as quickly as possible to the businesses that will desperately need it once restrictions are announced.”
The announcement of south Nottinghamshire’s measures also promised a review after 28 days, with Coun Robinson saying that will be a regular process.
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He said: “We’ll all be analysing that data to see what impact the restrictions are actually having.
“We do need to see it come down, not plateau. Plateau won’t be good enough.
“We’ve got to actually see these infection rates coming down, particularly in the over-60s.
“We’re confident the restrictions are going to make a difference but we do need people to really comply and make sure they do adhere to the new restrictions that are coming out.”
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Although people were being resilient, Coun Robinson said residents were “weary”.
He said: “It’s getting dark outside, it’s winter, there’s more restrictions, and particularly business owners are really wary of this period coming up in terms of what effect it’s going to have on there.
“What I’ve seen consistently is that people understand that we have to get a grip on this virus.
“Not just the virus itself but also the effect it’s having on our hospitals.”
Jason Weliczko, who has run the Nottingham city centre Robin Hood baked potato shack for 29 years, said he feared cases of Covid-19 would yo-yo as restrictions were imposed then lifted.
He said: “Even if we have this Tier 3 for 28 days, the R-rate might come down a fraction maybe but what’s going to happen after 28 days?
“It’ll come back up again.”