Locals ‘left in dark on outbreaks’
Shut down & not out in Leicester BACK IN LOCKDOWN
THE city centre of locked-down Leicester was like a ghost town yesterday.
The city was the UK’S first to have a local lockdown following a spike in Covid-19 cases. Only the open-air market was still trading. Dhansukh Rana, 79, out shopping for fruit, said: “It’s sad they have left out Leicester when the rest of the UK is moving on.”
Jessica Stone, 35, said of lockdown being eased: “It was too soon for us in Leicester and I wonder if other areas will have similar problems after the weekend and will be shutting back down. We definitely opened up too quickly so these local lockdowns could happen elsewhere.”
Police, who patrolled the city’s streets and train station, said most people were adhering to the lockdown rules.
WESTMINSTER has been accused of slapping fresh lockdowns on cashstrapped councils after leaving them in the dark over new virus outbreaks.
Greater Manchester’s Labour Mayor Andy Burnham slammed the Government for only sharing essential data with local public health teams once a week.
He said that meant it was often too late to fight a virus outbreak once it had arrived.
Fears have grown that Barnsley, Bradford and Rochdale could follow Leicester into local lockdown.
Mr Burnham said
Whitehall was using the same “we know best” approach it used on personal protective equipment and testing.
“But it doesn’t know best,” he said. “Councils are much closer to their communities and know them better than any civil servant. They have experts on the ground who are ready to chase this virus down.”
The first meeting of an all-party group calling for a public inquiry into the virus crisis is due to be held next week. The campaign is being led by the March For Change group.
Labour MP Clive Lewis said the campaign was being launched because the Government refused to learn from its failures. He said: “The Health Secretary Matt Hancock pulls levers in Whitehall and they’re connected to nothing.”