Coronavirus: Fareham and Gosport car parks host Covid-19 testing sites

The sites are at Lysses Car Park in Lysses Path, Fareham and Walpole Park South Car Park in South Street, Gosport.

Walpole Park South Car Park will be partially closed from today to allow the new testing facility to be built.

The walk-through self-test site is hoped to be ready by Wednesday.

It comes after a testing site was also installed in Havant as part of the effort to make getting tested easier for residents.

Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage said: ‘It has not been easy for many local people to get to the major drive-through testing site in Southampton Airport.

‘These new sites will give people peace of mind that swift convenient testing is available if they display any Covid symptoms.’

The Gosport testing site will be open from 8am until 8pm every day.

Fareham Borough Council leader, councillor Sean Woodward, said: ‘The site will be open for a few days each week, so everyone booking a test will have it as an option for them.

‘This is part of a network of new testing sites and I’m glad we could have one in Fareham, especially after the closure of the one in Tipner.

‘Hopefully having more testing sites will also avoid local residents having to travel to Scotland for tests, and other nonsense people have faced in the past.’

With the rise in infection rates, talk of more local lockdowns has become widespread among politicians.

In the seven days to October 11, Portsmouth saw 214 new Covid-19 cases, with the infection rate at 99.6 per 100,000 people.

Fareham also has 48 new cases, up from 14 the previous week, Gosport has 27 new cases and Havant has 42.

SEE ALSO: Coronavirus infection rate in Portsmouth almost at 100 as cases rise

Leader of Portsmouth City Council, Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, has called for a ‘circuit-breaker’ with a two-week national lockdown.

While Cllr Woodward believes Fareham is a long way from having a local lockdown, he added that the power to enforce them should be devolved.

‘I fully support the idea of local lockdowns,’ he said.

‘But the government should let local authorities decide when to introduce them, as they know far more about what’s going on in their area than a bureaucrat in Whitehall.’

While visiting Portsmouth this week, veterans minister and Conservative MP Johnny Mercer urged local politicians to put their faith in the government.

‘If we didn’t have local lockdowns people would be critical of national ones – you can’t win in politics,' he said.

‘I think the prime minister has got it right on every decision. Now isn’t the time to play politics with it, but make sure we are best prepared to deal with the situation.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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