Hull’s location is a factor keeping lockdown at bay
BEING ‘THE END OF THE LINE’ MAY BE A BONUS
ANY immediate local lockdown plans for Hull and the East Riding are being kept at bay thanks to the city being “the end of the line”.
Hull City Council leader Steve Brady has spoken out about preparations for any future local lockdown restrictions, as public health officials in neighbouring authorities continue to monitor outbreaks in their respective areas.
As yet, infection rates in both Hull and the East Riding remain below most of the hotspot towns and cities in the North-east, the North-west and parts of Yorkshire where extra restrictions currently apply.
Cllr Brady said he did not expect any future local measures would only apply to Hull if they were required.
“I think the scale of it would be across the whole of the Humber, not just Hull or the East Riding.
“We have set up a cross-humber board to manage it between us with the four local authorities working together.
“What we’ve already seen from places like Manchester and Leeds is that it’s all about the travel to work area, so it makes sense we come together across the Humber on this and respond as one entity.”
Cllr Brady said while he believed extra restrictions could eventually be necessary, there were currently no immediate plans to put any in place or request approval for them from ministers.
He said: “There are trigger points where decisions like that have to be made, but we are not there yet.
“The problem we are seeing is that those trigger points keep changing. At one stage, the trigger point for local authorities came when they were seeing 20-plus cases per 100,000 population, but that has shifted massively recently with the rises in infection rates now being seen in some places.”
He said he took some comfort from the region’s experience during the first wave of the virus.
“Back in March when it started in London and started to spread north, we were told to expect the same sort of high figures in two to three weeks. In reality, that didn’t happen and certainly not to the same extent that was seen in other parts of West Yorkshire.
“I believe one of the reasons for that is because we are a relatively small city and, while that has hindered us in lots of ways in the past, it meant we were isolated from the rest of the country in respect of what was going on elsewhere.
“You don’t have the same travel to work area here as you have in cities like Manchester where very large numbers of people move about all the time to get to work.
“We are starting to see more cases here in Hull and the East Riding, but the main thing we are doing at the moment is making sure we are well prepared for what might happen down the line and that involves very close liaison between the four local authorities.”
Councillor Steve Wilson, chairman of Hull’s health scrutiny commission, echoed Cllr Brady’s views on Hull’s geography being a factor and said it was an issue which was discussed during a visit to the city last week by England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty.
“It was interesting to
Chris Whitty, because listen one to of the reasons he came to Hull was because he was looking at health issues in coastal areas and ports.
“In the old days, Hull was very much a hotspot for plagues because they were carried here by visiting ships.
“Today, we’re seeing a reverse of that, if you like, because although we like to say we are at the start of the line, we are also very much at the end of the line.
“Unlike a lot of other places, we don’t just merge into another urban area and, in that sense, we have been very fortunate so far in comparison to the areas where additional restrictions have been imposed.”
Cllr Wilson also said the region’s closely-knit health sector put Hull and the surrounding areas at an advanatge.
“Because we have got people like Emma Lattimer involved at the top level in both the Hull and East Riding Clinical Commissioning Groups, it provides much more synergy between the various partners.
“To have everyone working harmony is a real plus.” in