Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford has said today (Monday) that changes to the current lockdown restrictions could mean rules around travelling to second homes are tightened.

He stated at a press conference that the law requires the Welsh Government to review the stay-at-home regulations every three weeks, and that social distancing regulations had been looked at to see whether there were any areas which need to be tightened, or changed.

“We are looking at strengthening the regulations in relation to people travelling to second homes in Wales while at the same time we hope to be able to offer some new help to families who have children with learning disabilities or autism to enable them to exercise more than once a day,” stated Mr. Drakeford.

“The work finalising the regulation changes will happen during the rest of this week and by the weekend we hope to be able to provide full details of them,” he continued.

Current UK and Welsh Government advice states that people should not travel to their second homes because of the added pressure it puts on local services, with Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price stating earlier this month that the advice needed to be backed up by appropriate powers of enforcement if people choose to ignore it.

“Unless people cannot return home because someone is self-isolating in their primary residence, or for another humanitarian reason, all travel to non-primary residences should cease and people currently in non-primary residences should return home. Put simply, this will save lives,” stated Mr. Price.

Councillor Michael Williams, who represents the Tenby North ward on Pembrokeshire County Council has continued to urge the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dyfed-Powys Dafydd Llywelyn to increase the number of road blocks in place to prevent unnecessary visitors coming into the county, and police patrols and stop-checks on main roads and routes into Pembrokeshire are continuing as the crisis goes on.

Policing teams and Road Policing Units continue to issue anyone found to be taking non-essential journeys with Fixed Penalty Notices.