OFFICERS will seek to enforce the Government’s new Covid-19 rules in the same way it has done previously according to a police chief.

Andrew Slattery, Assistant Chief Constable at Cumbria Constabulary, told The Mail yesterday that issuing fines would be a 'last resort' for officers in the county.

"We're going to approach this in the same way we've approached enforcement throughout the pandemic," he said.

"There are many exemptions to the new rules - whether that's extended bubbles or recognised events. So issuing fines is absolutely the last resort.

He confirmed the enforcement of the new rules would place greater demands on 'already-stretched' police teams.

"People talk a lot about 'additional officers' but really this is misleading, really.

"Any 'additional' officers are usually abstracted from somewhere else - we constantly have to make judgments as to where is best to allocate already-stretched resources. In this sense, there are no 'additional' officers or resources."