Cumbria police responded to the largest amount of callouts of people flouting Covid-19 rules this weekend since the start of lockdown.

The revelation came as the man leading the county's coronavirus response, Assistant Chief Constable Andy Slattery, pledged to thoroughly digest the government's "roadmap" document to see what is means for the county.

Since Friday, Cumbria police have been called out more than 100 times to residents breaking lockdown rules by travelling for reasons prohibited by the rules.

Mr Slattery said: “We had a busy weekend, obviously with the three-day bank holiday starting with the VE Day celebrations we had numerous calls to parties.

“It was a busy day Friday and this carried on into the rest of the weekend. A larger number of people than normal were breaching the lockdown regulations.”

Officers stopped motorists driving from Essex to the Lake District, from London to Scotland, Scotland down into the county and even residents moving within the county without reasonable excuse.

“A lot of people had pretty scurrilous reasons for travelling,” continued Mr Slattery. “Many of them admitted themselves they shouldn’t be out but thought they would chance it anyhow.

“This weekend we ended up issuing more than 100 fixed penalty fines. We actually issued more fines this weekend than we have in the entire lockdown period.

“It was quite a busy challenging weekend for our officers.”

Following a public speech to the nation Prime Minister, Boris Johnson told viewers that from Wednesday lockdown rules in England are to be eased and people will be able to drive to other destinations for their daily exercise as well as taking unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise.

However, this raises the question of how far motorists are allowed to travel for their exercise and will there be an influx of people travelling to the Lake District.

Police forces are still unsure how far is too far.

Mr Slattery said: “All we have at the moment is what the Prime Minister said.

“We have to look at the 50 page document that will explain things in detail and see what people are and aren’t allowed to do. It appears from what the Prime Minister has said that he is relaxing that ability to be able to travel.”

As Mr Slattery pointed out, relaxing the lockdown rules will bring new challenges for all authorities involved as the county sees a lot of people travelling to its national parks.

“It’s been challenging, but the vast majority of the public has been really co-operative with our officers,” added Mr Slattery.

“There has been a small minority of people who have been difficult and abusive and these are the sort of people that will continue to be difficult and abusive.

“Our officers are doing their best, they are doing a public service.

"What is in that document will dictate how we respond to the next phase of this. The virus is still there, we still have high infection rates and we still have high death rates.

“It’s not to restrict people’s freedom, it’s to protect lives.”