The leader of Buckinghamshire Council has continued to reject claims Bucks is at risk of being put into Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions – despite a tweet suggesting otherwise.

Martin Tett tweeted yesterday (Thursday) evening saying it was “disappointing” Covid rates were “going in the wrong direction”.

ALSO READ: Bucks leader rejects claim county is ‘at risk’ of Tier 3 next week

He said: “Very disappointing to see in today’s data that Covid rates are going in the wrong direction so soon after the end of lockdown.

“If we want to avoid Tier 3 we need to follow the rules and take responsibility for each other.”

Earlier this week, he rejected claims by The Sun that the entire county could be headed for “tougher” Tier 3 restrictions next week.

The newspaper suggested Buckinghamshire, Suffolk, Warrington and Cheshire and Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset – all currently in Tier 2 – could be at risk of being moved into tougher restrictions before Christmas after seeing the rate of Covid cases per 100,000 in the general population, and for the over 60s, go up.

At the time, Mr Tett told the BFP he “did not recognise” figures published on the newspaper’s website.

Clarifying his latest tweet, Mr Tett said he was taking about the “direction of travel” and saying “if we don’t change how we behave we could be in Tier 3 in a few weeks”.

He said: “In my Twitter comments I was talking about the direction of travel.

“The figures I was referring to show our latest data, that is, cases in Buckinghamshire have gone up to 142/100k, and I was saying that if we don’t change how we behave, we could be in Tier 3 in a few weeks, especially if people let their guard down now we are out of lockdown and over the Christmas period.

“The key issue on the data that I was referring to was that it was unlikely we (Buckinghamshire) would be in Tier 3 next week as the figures we have are very different from the ones quoted from the other sources you are referring to.

“It is also worth noting that it is not just the case numbers that decide which tier an area is placed, but a range of factors including the ages of those testing positive and pressure on hospitals.”

The government will review all tiers every 14 days, with the next review expected on December 16.