RESIDENTS in Waverley are facing tighter restrictions on their everyday lives, with a surge in Covid-19 cases leaving the borough teetering on ‘the brink of Tier 2’, a council leader has warned.

Another Surrey borough, Elmbridge, moved from the lowest Tier 1 (medium), up to the next level, a Tier 2 high alert, on Saturday. And according to Waverley Borough Council leader John Ward, Waverley could soon follow.

The Farnham Residents councillor told a meeting of Waverley’s full council on Tuesday: “Elmbridge has just gone into the high category and Waverley, unfortunately, looking at the numbers, is running at a very close second in Surrey – and cases in Waverley are rising.

“I am concerned there is a possibility we will be following Elmbridge into the high category.”

The new three-tier system sees every area of England classed as one of three categories, depending on the rate of infection in that area; medium (Tier 1), high (Tier 2) or very high (Tier 3).

Waverley is currently in Tier 1. But under the more restrictive Tier 2, households would be barred from mixing indoors – not only in people’s homes but also in pubs and restaurants.

People from different homes would be able to mix outside, including private gardens, as long as the rule of six and social distancing are followed. Pub and restaurant closing times would remain 10pm, and residents would still be allowed to travel in and out of the area.

In the week up to October 16, there were 81.5 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people in Waverley – compared to 105.3 in Elmbridge.

The next highest caseload in Surrey is Guildford with 69.8 cases per 100,000.

Cllr Ward admitted the council “don’t know exactly how an area or a council will move from one tier to the other”, but told members officers have been tasked with finding out “exactly what the criteria are”.

“I find it very confusing as the leader not to be able to know exactly how and why we might be moving higher,” he said, echoing similar comments by Elmbridge leader Stuart Selleck earlier in the week.

Cllr Ward added: “If our residents ask us why this is happening to them, they deserve a better explanation than ‘someone higher up the totem pole said it had to be’.”