Ministers are being called upon to provide clarity on Bolton’s COVID rules after it emerged that local leaders and residents were unaware of restrictions on travel and gatherings.
Published government guidance urges people to avoid all but ‘essential’ travel in areas where the Indian variant is spreading fastest – including Bolton, Bedford, Blackburn and Darwen, Burnley, Kirklees, Leicester, Hounslow, and North Tyneside.
People in these COVID hotspots are also being told to work from home where possible and avoid indoor gatherings.
Yet public officials, leaders and residents seem to have been largely unaware of the guidance – which was quietly updated online as recently as May 21 without an official announcement.
There's changes to travel guidance in Bolton. Local health officials and politicians say they weren't consulted or informed. https://t.co/mXPNqmV7Tl
— BBC Radio Manchester (@BBCRadioManc) May 25, 2021
Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi confirmed to The Bolton News that she was “not told” about the new guidance and only found out on Monday (May 24) when the story broke in the MEN.
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“I have only just found out about this new guidance, and it just shows the incompetence of the Government in dealing with this,” The MP stated.
“If this guidance was so important, why did no one know about it?
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“I am very angry and upset on behalf of my constituents who may have booked to go away to see family, paid for rail tickets, made arrangements. Had they known about this guidance I am sure the majority would not have made plans. It leaves them in a very difficult situation because these new guidelines are advisory.”
A government spokesperson has since told the MEN: “We provided additional guidance for those living in affected areas when we became aware of the risk posed by the variant, to encourage people to take an extra cautious approach when meeting others or travelling.”
Govt also pointing to PM words on May 14th: “those living in Bolton and other affected areas, there is now a greater risk from this new variant so I urge you to be extra cautious.”
Bolton is one of the worst-affected areas in the UK for COVID cases and continue to trend upwards.
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In the latest week May 14 – May 20, the region recorded 451 cases per 100,000 people. The average area in England had 12.
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon also announced last week that Bolton, Blackburn and Bedford residents would be banned from entering the country from Monday 24 May due to high rates of infection.
She said the restrictions were “hopefully temporary”.
Featured image: Philip Platt / Geograph
Bolton
Milk Maids, Bolton – The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Daisy Jackson
Ice cream doesn’t come much fresher than those served at Milk Maids – in fact, you’ll be standing right on the family farm where the cows that produce the milk live, as you tuck into your scoop.
This unassuming dairy farm in Bolton has been in operation for decades, and in the same family for generations.
But it’s when sisters Fiona and Rebecca saw the full potential of all that award-winning milk being produced on their farm that Milk Maids was born.
This ice cream parlour on Dearden’s Farm in Over Hulton is now one of the hottest spots in Greater Manchester, especially when the weather is similarly hot.
Every month they release a whole batch of flavours, all made fresh daily (you can literally see Fiona legging it across the yard with buckets of milk to make fresh batches), with May specials including white chocolate and sea salt caramel, raspberry cookie, and passionfruit pavlova.
Milk Maids, Bolton – The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Cones can be filled with molten chocolate or pistachio creme before your ice cream is scooped and pressed into the cone.
Or you can have your chosen flavour whizzed up into a milkshake, served in a milk bun, or presented in an insulated take-home box for later.
We could wax lyrical about how good this ice cream is, but the queues really do speak for themselves, and you should go and get in it right now.
Bolton grooming gang ringleader who ‘preyed upon young teenage girls’ jailed
Emily Sergeant
The main offender of a group of sexual predators who preyed upon young teenage girls in Bolton has been jailed.
Ashley Darbyshire appeared at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday (Monday 28 April) was found guilty of grooming, raping, and sexually assaulting underage girls in the Blackrod area of Bolton between 2016 and 2018.
He was convicted of three counts of rape, 12 counts of sexual activity with a child, three counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and one count of making indecent photographs of a child.
Darbyshire was sentenced alongside three other men who were part of the group, with the remaining set to be sentenced today (29 April).
#SENTENCED | Three men part of Blackrod grooming gang have been sentenced today 28/04/25 for sexual offences against girls under 16.
Ashley Darbyshire (01/01/1997), of Bolton, was sentenced to 15 years, at Liverpool Crown Court.
According to Greater Manchester Police (GMP), the offences began in 2016 when the primary offender, Darbyshire – who was 19 at the time – first came into contact with the primary victim, a girl aged 13, and then went on to introduce her to nine of his friends, who each ‘used and abused her at their disposal’ on numerous occasions into 2018.
The men – who were all aged from between 17 and 29 at the time when the offences began – also approached the other victims, all girls under the age of 16, via private messaging and social media platforms, and got to know them from where many local teenagers would hang out and socialise near the community centre.
The men plied some of the victims with alcohol and drugs, GMP explained, while some of them would send indecent images of their private body parts to the girls, as well as initiate sexual conversations with them on messaging platforms.
The other two grooming gang members sentenced on the same day as Darbyshire / Credit: GMP
The offences eventually came to light after an incident involving one of the victims and another defendant on Sunday 17 June 2018, after which the police were notified, and an investigation was subsequently launched.
The group of men were all convicted of a range of sexual offences, with over 30 convictions between them.
Darbyshire has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, and is set to serve 10 years in custody, as well as being placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.
On the same day as Darbyshire’s sentencing, another man from the group, Ross Corley, was convicted of two counts of sexual activity with a child and sentenced to 28 months in prison, and another unnamed man was convicted of two counts of sexual activity with a child under 16, and was sentenced to 15 months, suspended for two years.
According to GMP, many of the men ‘showed no remorse’ for their actions in court when sentenced.
The Manc -
25th May 2021 
