The MP for Keighley and Ilkley has called a recommendation from local councils to take West Yorkshire out of local coronavirus restrictions 'both bizarre and irresponsible'.
Robbie Moore MP has told Rombalds Radio he believes the leader of Bradford Council along with counterparts in Calderdale and Kirklees is involved in "some form of political game play" to get the restrictions lifted, which he says is "completely irresponsible".
Bradford Council issued a statement on Wednesday teatime, in which it said any restrictions in place should apply to the whole district because otherwise there would be 'confusion' and it would be 'impossible to enforce'. It went on to suggest that the whole of the Bradford district should revert to national restrictions and that sports facilities should be allowed to reopen.
This is despite the latest data for 16th to 22nd August showing an increase in the infection rates. The latest 7-day rate for the whole district is 42.4 people per 100,000 - up from 42.2 in the data to 21st August. A number of Bradford wards still have more than 10 cases in the last week and one - Heaton Highgate - reported 20 cases of the virus.
Above: Positive Covid-19 cases by ward: 16th to 22nd August 2020
Robbie Moore MP told Rombalds Radio: "My view is that Bradford Council's recommendation that the whole of the district is taken out of local restrictions is both bizarre and irresponsible. Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees Council leaders have produced a joint letter calling for this.
"This is the same group of council leaders that asked for a reintroduction of restrictions due to high Covid cases and are now asking for local restrictions to be lifted altogether and brought in line with the rest of the country. Doing this at a time when infection rates are still higher in certain areas of the Bradford district than elsewhere puts lives at risk.
"Bradford Council’s leader made it clear to me this week that in her view either the whole of the district needed to be subjected to the local restrictions, or the whole of the district should come out. I disagree and I’ve been quite clear throughout that a more pragmatic localised approach should be adopted, one which is supported and justified by the data rather than a broad bush approach which simply follows the Bradford Council local authority boundary."
Mr Moore said it was important to note that new Covid cases are still being reported in the Bradford city area, as well as in the wards covering Keighley. "For Bradford Council’s leader to change tack and now recommend local restrictions are lifted altogether as some form of political game play is in my view completely irresponsible," he said.
"We all want to see a downward turn in Covid cases, and therefore I do believe that local restrictions can be justified where the data supports it, but likewise in those wards where no Covid cases are being reported so can it be justified that those areas are removed from local restrictions."
In a joint statement the leaders of Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees councils said they had taken "difficult decisions and directed significant resource in our councils" over the last few months and said messaging from the government had been "confused and bungled".
They said: "Adding and subtracting restrictions ward by ward weekly 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.
"To avoid all these pitfalls brought in by the latest Government direction, we think that Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees 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 added that they want the government to:
- Resist the pressure to put in different restrictions ward by ward and place by place, weekly, driven by MPs. It undermines local council leadership and is no way to lead a nation through a national pandemic.
- Tell us what the tolerance level of the infection is in the UK. How much is too much? What is the correlation between positive cases, hospitalisation and COVID deaths?
- Fully fund test and trace. This will cost at least £2 million a year in Bradford district until a vaccine is found. The Government was able to find money immediately for Serco and Deloitte to do test and trace nationally, why can they not be equally as speedy with funding local authorities to do the same, but better?
- At least double the number of home testing kits available to us. For example Bradford has been allocated 1000 testing kitsfor a district of 537,000 people which is paltry.
- Don’t change restrictions weekly, this confuses and therefore weakens their effectiveness, prolonging how long we have to keep them for.
- Provide financial support for those self-isolating who may be on zero hour contracts, or otherwise are unable to receive an income
- Fund empty beds in care homes to prevent them going bust and making their elderly vulnerable residents homeless this coming winter. Learn from your mistakes, don’t put our elderly last again.
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