MPS urge councils not to back ‘blanket’ measures
THREE MPS have written an open letter to Nottinghamshire councils calling for them not to back countywide measures if Covid-19 cases continue to rise in the city.
Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, Mansfield MP Ben Bradley and Brendan Clarke-smith, MP for Bassetlaw, have called on council leaders not to continue pressing for a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to restrictions in Nottinghamshire.
All three politicians have already expressed “disappointment” and “frustration” that their areas were included in Monday’s Tier Two announcement.
This came alongside a backdrop of lower rates in Mansfield, Ashfield and Bassetlaw than the rest of the county.
Both Mansfield and Bassetlaw have rates roughly 10 percent of Nottingham’s 834.2 cases per 100,000 people, while Ashfield’s current rate is around an eighth of the numbers seen in the city.
However, other areas in the south of the county like Gedling, Broxtowe and Rushcliffe, have seen rates rise sharply.
Yet the “blanket” approach to the county, they say, has led to their areas being included in the same ‘high risk’ measures as the city.
The MPS are asking for support not to merge Ashfield, Mansfield and Bassetlaw in to a Tier 3 category should the north Nottinghamshire authorities not warrant it.
This decision, the MPS say, should be based on rates of infection, not “solidarity with their southern counterparts”.
The letter to council leaders says: “As the council leader for your authority, you all supported the ‘one size fits all’ approach and went on record to argue that the entire county should have the same restrictions placed on it.
“As a county we are now in Tier Two.
“This has huge implications for how residents live their life.
“It has consequences for hospitality, family life and mental health.
“If an authority’s rates of infection were to increase and warrant further restrictions, we would support the measures.
“As you can see from the figures the south of the county has huge rates of infections and the north does not.
“We call on you today to pledge that should this disparity continue, the areas which do not justify harsher restrictions will not get grouped together with the areas that do.”