PEOPLE should not travel across the Wales-England border as lockdown restrictions are eased, first minister Mark Drakeford has said.

With Wales moving from stay at home restrictions to stay local restrictions, the first minister was asked what this meant for people who live near the border.

At today's coronavirus briefing he was asked if a trip across the border could be considered local.

The first minister said that it could, but that it would not be allowed because stay at home restrictions remain in place in England.

He said: "Our stay local message would not stop somebody travelling into England, but as soon as they got there the rules in England are stay at home.

"I am sure that in England they hope to move away from stay at home reasonably soon as well.

"In Wales people will be able to travel locally, in England they would not."

Cross border travel was touched on again when Mr Drakeford announced that holiday accommodation, able to reopen later in March, would not be allowed to take bookings from people in England.

The first minister said: “I am making the rules for people in Wales and it’s very important that owners of self-contained accommodation don’t take bookings from outside Wales over Easter because the arrangements that will apply across our border, for example in the Prime Minister’s road map, will not allow people in England to travel or to stay overnight away from their own homes.”

"The rules in England will not permit that. The Prime Minister’s road map says that for the weeks after March 29, people should minimise travel, there are to be no holidays, and people won’t be allowed to stay away from home overnight.

"If it won’t be safe to stay overnight in England, then obviously it would not be safe for people to travel into Wales."

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Earlier this morning, Mr Drakeford warned that further reopening of Wales’s tourism industry would be halted if holiday providers are found to be taking bookings from people in England over Easter.

Mr Drakeford told the PA news agency: “People who let accommodation should not be taking bookings from people who live outside Wales.

“We will be talking with our local authority colleagues and with the police next week, just to see if there is anything we need to do to mobilise our own enforcement authorities.

“If the industry were to act irresponsibly, the penalty would be we wouldn’t be able to carry on reopening the industry.

“I know there are rogues in any part of life. But I think that the industry will absolutely recognise that we want to go beyond self-contained accommodation. We want the tourism industry in Wales to have a longer and better season this year than we managed last year.”