Tory MPs want local lockdown exemptions
CONSERVATIVE MPS in parts of West Yorkshire where coronavirus restrictions have been reimposed have urged the Government to take a more localised approach to where the rules apply ahead of a review.
Five Conservative MPs representing seats where restrictions have returned due to coronavirus spikes have made it clear they think putting the rules in place on a local authority level has meant some areas had been unfairly included.
Dewsbury MP Mark Eastwood said ideally restrictions in Kirklees would be lifted altogether, but if that was not possible, he wanted to see decisions made at a postcode level.
Keighley’s Robbie Moore added: “I think it just needs to be much more geographically localised rather than just following the council authority boundaries.
“The Keighley side has seen new cases Covid cases coming through, whereas the Ilkley side has not.”
Shipley MP Philip Davies said the restrictions were a “blanket lockdown thrown over the entire district unnecessarily”.
Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney and Calder Valley MP Craig Whittaker are also pushing for changes.
But Coun Tim Swift, the leader of Labour-run Calderdale council, responded: “I think the problem ever since the national lockdown is about people being confused about what the rules are, and the more you try to target something like that, the more difficult it becomes.”
Bradford Council’s leader Susan Hinchcliffe also accused Mr Moore of only speaking out in support of the more “affluent” parts of his constituency.
A LOCAL coronavirus test and trace scheme to plug the holes in the £10bn national system is being launched in a West Yorkshire district where lockdown measures have been reimposed.
Calderdale council, which has the ninth highest infection rate in England, hopes its local contact tracing system will be in place in the coming days and will use the authority’s knowledge of local communities to reach more people.
Neighbouring Kirklees council is in the early stages of deciding whether to launch its own service to complement the national system, while Bradford council is in talks with Government about setting up its own team.
Some local contact tracing work has already been going on in recent days to improve the numbers of people in harder-to-reach communities responding to the scheme after being told a contact has tested positive for Covid-19.
Calderdale, Bradford and Kirklees are among the areas of the North where lockdown measures came into force this week because of a rise in coronavirus cases in recent days.
Local directors of public health are understood to be increasingly concerned by the low percentage of cases being successfully followed up by the national scheme.
Calderdale council will use native speakers of Urdu, Czech and Slovak to knock on the doors of people the national system was unable to reach. All positive cases would get a text message from the council with a local number to call due to many people being unwilling to call an 0300 number, often believing it to be a hoax. If they don’t reply within 24 hours they get a knock on the door.
Tim Swift, leader of Calderdale council, said he hoped the local scheme would begin next Wednesday and that the national call-centre approach often failed to understand basic local issues like names in some communities not always fitting “neatly into a first-name-surname function”.
Coun Swift told The Yorkshire Post that staff from the council’s environmental health and community and neighbourhood teams would be seconded to carry out the work, possibly with the help of volunteers.
He said around 50 per cent of people were being successfully contacted in Calderdale under the national system, whose call centre was struggling to adapt to a number of local factors in the district.
He said: “I was joking to somebody earlier, I don’t know anybody under 30 who uses the voicemail on their answer phone, people just ring numbers back and of course they’re getting called from an 0300 number and probably think it’s somebody selling them a scam.
“I think the national system works great if you live a reasonably structured life so you’re pretty sure you’re going to know who your main contacts are and have their details.
“We’re talking about people who are working in casual jobs driving in private hire, working in local shops.
“It’s a complicated job, don’t underestimate the difficulties that a national phone system is going to have in those settings.”