Covid: Wales circuit-breaker lockdown plan 'frustration'

Not a "huge amount" of detail has been shared with police about a possible circuit-breaker lockdown, according to a police and crime commissioner.

Dafydd Llywelyn spoke about his "frustration" as speculation mounts about a possible two-week lockdown.

A leaked letter from a director of the Confederation of Passenger Transport to members in Wales said it would "take us back to the situation in March".

The health minister said on Sunday that no final decision has been made.

On Friday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said a "short, sharp" circuit-breaker could slow down the virus.

Across Wales, there are already 17 areas in lockdown, with a ban on all-but essential travel, such as going to work.

A circuit-breaker is a tight set of restrictions imposed for a fixed period of time.

Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Mr Llywelyn said: "We have had meetings last week in relation to the preparation for what may be happening in the future.

"The reality, and I will be very open about this, the detail of that has not necessarily been shared in a huge amount with us and there is sometimes - and has been during the whole period - some frustration on the part of policing," he told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.

In the letter to members of the CPT, Wales director John Pockett said lockdown would start at 18:00 on 23 October and end on 9 November.

But Mr Pockett has since told PA Media he was "surmising" what he thought would happen.

"The letter is genuine and it contains what I assume or surmised would be the position," he said.

"It was me advising my bus operator members to be prepared for something and this is what it may well be.

"It could be more - it could be anything. I think other associations have communicated with their members in the same way."

Health Minister Vaughan Gething told BBC Politics Wales the Welsh Government was considering advice from experts before making a final decision.

The Welsh Conservatives' deputy chairman, Tomos Dafydd Davies, said he was "keen to see the science and to understand the reasoning behind any decision".

He told BBC Radio Cymru's Dewi Llwyd programme: "I think it's right that local authorities in rural areas that aren't suffering as much with an infection rate... understand why they have to follow the same regulations and restrictions as the rest of Wales."

Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies said the CPT letter showed "incredible disrespect... and breath-taking arrogance" by the Welsh Government and he had written to presiding officer Elin Jones MS "to express our grave concerns over the first minister's actions."

The Welsh Government said: "The measures we have put in place at both a local and a national level, with help from the public, have kept the spread of the virus under check.

"However, there is a growing consensus that we now need to introduce a different set of measures and actions to respond to the virus as it is spreading across Wales more quickly through the autumn and winter.

"We are actively considering advice from SAGE and our TAC Group.

"A 'fire-break' set of measures to control Covid-19, similar to that described in the SAGE papers, is under consideration in Wales. But no decisions have been made."