The leader of Bolton Council, Cllr David Greenhalgh, has reacted to the news for Bolton.

He says that he understands there will be a lot of frustration to the latest announcement but that Bolton must "now work together" to "enable us to get back to the normality we all want".

He said: "I know there will be a huge amount of frustration and anger out there at the announcement today of further restrictions, which are shared by myself and my colleagues, particularly as our R rate is reducing, but the reality is, although we are improving dramatically and our cases are coming down, we still had 946 new cases in the borough last week, our hospital is packed with Covid patients; and we need to get those figures down even more.

"I give residents my word that when we see our figures reach the level of those areas that are currently in tier 2, which we will achieve under the current trajectory if we continue to follow the guidance, I will be fighting, as I did before, to get our restrictions lifted as soon as possible so that those businesses affected so much by these measures can reopen and our local economy can start to grow again.

"Bolton Council will continue to prioritise getting those grants and additional help out to those businesses affected under tier 3 restrictions, and I urge and businesses who feel they are overlooked or fall between the cracks, to get in touch to see if we can help further.

"We must now work together to continue to get our rates down to enable us to get back to the normality we all want."