Police have fined an Oldham gym owner £1,000 after discovering the business was operating during lockdown.
GMP officers visited the premises last week after receiving reports that people were sneaking into the gym despite COVID rules.
Police were ignored when they turned up at the venue to investigate and subsequently forced their way in.
Two people were discovered inside – including one gym user who had attempted to evade officers by hiding in the toilets.
As well as fining the gym owner, GMP also issued £200 fixed penalty notices to each of the individuals caught inside the venue during the raid.
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Arooj Shah, Deputy Leader of Oldham Council and Cabinet Member for COVID-19 Response, said the council had received additional reports of other gyms in the area remaining open during lockdown, and that they would be looking into the matter further, “taking action if necessary”.
The councillor stated: “We know lockdown has been hard for businesses.
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“We don’t want to see any business shut, but the vast majority of those which have had to close have stuck to the rules and we’re thankful for that.
“People may say there were only two people inside but the government’s rules state that indoor gyms must close. The rules are in place to protect people and cannot be ignored.
“Irresponsible behaviour like this affects us all – it can add to the high infection rate which could stop us moving out of the strict measures currently in place.”
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Gyms and leisure centres must remain closed in all parts of the UK under current coronavirus legislation.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has revealed the government is in the process of reviewing lockdown measures and a ‘roadmap’ to exit lockdown will be announced on February 22.
Over the weekend he told press that reopening schools on March 8 remained the priority, with non-essential retail and hospitality to follow.
Despite plans for a cautious reopening, some Conservative MPs are asking for fast removal of lockdown restrictions once the nine priority groups have been vaccinated.
Scientists and experts have continued to campaign for a more gradual easing of measures, warning the UK risks another wave if businesses reopen too quickly.
Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told the BBC: “It’s worse to open up, have another wave of pandemic, another bunch of hospitalisations and have to close down again than to be able to progressively normalise things.”
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The Boots recycling scheme where you can get £5 off every shop
Thomas Melia
UK high street retailer and healthcare shop Boots has launched an innovative recycling scheme that entitles customers to £5 off their future shopping trips.
If you’re still struggling to come up with a New Year’s resolution, why not try a spot of recycling and earn some money off your next cosmetics shop while you’re at it?
Started in 2020, the Boots Recycling Scheme allows Advantage Card holders the opportunity to get money while also being more conscious about how we recycle our used health and beauty products.
Their third-party app, Recycle at Boots, uses a ‘Scan2Recycle‘ system where users can upload items from various beauty brands by taking a picture of the empty packaging before identifying its form.
This scheme takes items that can’t usually be recycled at home, such as lotion pumps, toothpaste tubes, lipstick, mascaras, travel minis, make-up palettes and more.
Once you have five items approved, head over to your nearest participating Boots store, drop off your empties and scan the QR code on the deposit box.
After you’ve followed all these steps, a voucher will appear entitling you to 500 Advantage Points when you spend £10 in-store at your nearest location, and not only do you have £5 worth of points with your name on it, you’re also an eco-warrior.
There’s even a dedicated section of the app to recycling empty medicine and vitamin blister packs, which gives customers 100 Advantage Points when they spend £5 in-store.
Brilliant.
Credit: Publicity pictures (supplied)
Items dropped into these deposit boxes are taken to MyGroup, a recycling and waste management service which works around the clock to help divert waste from landfill.
These empties will be washed and traditionally recycled into a material called MyBoard, a construction board material most similar to plywood, with lots of different uses.
Nearest Boots locations in Manchester running the Recycle at Boots scheme:
Manchester Market Street – 32 Market Street, M1 1PL
Salford Regent Park – Regents Park, M5 3TP
Manchester Didsbury – 736-740 Wilmslow Road, M20 2DW
The Trafford Centre – 10 Peel Avenue, M17 8BD
Trafford Retail Park – Neary Way, M41 7FN
If you’re up for getting money off your next Boots splurge while also helping recycle cosmetics containers and more, you can download the Recycle at Boots app and find your nearest HERE.
Manchester United issue statement after Bruno Fernandes’ social media is hacked
Danny Jones
Manchester United were forced to issue an official statement following Bruno Fernandes’ social media being hacked.
The Man United star’s digital profile was hijacked in the wake of the defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion this weekend, which saw the Red Devils knocked out of the FA Cup and, it’s fair to say, quite the flurry of activity online.
As if to add insult to injury, with United‘s exit from the competition, a user then commandeered the club captain’s presence to share several fake posts.
With the official Bruno Fernandes X account being targeted following the game, the club had no choice but to respond after several controversial and/or inappropriate posts, not to mention multiple instances of general anti-ownership sentiment.
In case you didn’t see any of the since-deleted posts, besides one understandably troublesome comment which read, “let’s get rid of INEOS“, others were even more provocative/inflammatory.
The comments ranged from everything between messages @ing darts player and United fan Luke Littler to influencers like KSI and Jake Paul.
Offensive language was also present in many of them.
As for the Portuguese midfielder, he also quickly clarified that he obviously had no involvement in the activity; meanwhile, despite plenty of players coming out to apologise for the defeat on Sunday night, the skipper is yet to address the disappointment directly.
The loss to Brighton confirmed that Manchester United will be playing just 40 games for the rest of the campaign – the fewest since the 1914/15 season (i.e. at the outset of the First World War) – which serves as yet another unwanted record for the club of late.
You can see the highlights for the game down below.
It is also likely to have been caretaker manager Darren Fletcher’s final game in charge of the Reds, with an interim replacement set to be appointed imminently following Ruben Amorim’s shock sacking earlier this month.
His predecessor, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, also looked like the frontrunner at one point – and could still be involved in a backroom setup – but The Athletic now has it that Carrick could be is odds-on favourite to be announced before the Manchester derby.
Nevertheless, plenty of supporters still feel the problems remain deeply rooted throughout the club and that a change of personnel among the coaching staff still may not be enough…
The Manc -
14th February 2021 
