Councils unite to call for lift of restrictions
TWO West Yorkshire councils under local restrictions have united in a call for the Government to release the measures across the length and breadth of all three boroughs.
Calderdale and Bradford councils have sent that message to Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty following a series of high-level meetings.
Mr Hancock is expected to give his weekly update on restrictions on Friday.
Yesterday Bradford Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe and Calderdale Leader Councillor Tim Swift released a statement referring to the calls.
When the statement was originally issued it said it was also supported by Kirklees leader Councillor Shabir Pandor but this was later corrected and we were asked to remove his support for the statement.
It said: “Our infection rates have come down significantly this week although they are still high.
“Over the last few months and weeks we, as Leaders, have taken difficult decisions and directed significant resource in our councils to make this happen. However, throughout this time Government messaging has been confused and bungled.
“The latest shift in Government messaging that happened last week was that they inferred they wanted to see more localised restrictions, varying them ward by ward rather than by local authority areas.
“To add to the confusion Government want to review and change these place by place weekly leading to inconsistency in restrictions across the North.
“In the latest guidance from Government there is a presumption that wards with a low number of cases will start to revert to the national restrictions this week. Adding and subtracting restrictions ward by ward makes the already confused local regulations almost impossible to understand for residents so it begs the question whether restrictions across partial geography can be of any use at all.
“On top of this, people’s patience is wearing thin with the confusion. They need to know that the restrictions are fair otherwise they won’t keep to them.
“We all know that there are wider health impacts that the restrictions are causing such as mental illness, and economic hardship that can have an equally detrimental impact and people are naturally now questioning the Government’s approach.
“We as local leaders have to have a national framework to operate within which works. As well as the confusion for members of the public, services are not delivered ward by ward.
“Police, environmental health, enforcement officers and others all work to a common regulatory framework across the local authority.
“To avoid all these pitfalls brought in by the latest Government direction, we think that Bradford and Calderdale should join the rest of the UK in the national level of restrictions, the messaging would be clearer for the public and we’d stand a better chance of people complying.
“But going down this route also means Government needs to give us the resources and tools to ramp up our activity locally.”
They go on to ask the Government to fund a local test and trace system, which would cost around £2 million a year in Bradford, provide more home testing kits and provide financial support for people on zero hours contracts.
The letter also urges the Government not to change lockdown rules week by week.
And referring to imposing different lockdown rules on neighbouring wards, they add: “Different restrictions ward by ward and place by place decided by Tory backbench MPs undermines local council leadership and is no way to lead a nation through a national pandemic.”