Harrogate Borough Council Leader against one lockdown status for Yorks and Humber
Council Leader Richard Cooper says it's "not good enough".
Talks over bringing North Yorkshire’s lockdown status in line with areas worst affected by Covid have been met with opposition from the leader of Harrogate Borough Council.
It was revealed yesterday that officials are in “active discussions” over bringing all of Yorkshire and the Humber under the same restrictions to end confusion and help prevent infections across the county’s boundaries.
It is a move which would see Tier 1 areas North Yorkshire, East Riding and Hull join West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and York under Tier 2 restrictions.
But Harrogate council leader Richard Cooper has said “it is not good enough to say that it will just be simpler” to change lockdown tiers when infection rates differ greatly across the regions.
“If that logic is followed then we would just have a national lockdown as that is the simplest of all things to understand,” he said.
“Moving the Harrogate district into a different tier, like any other area, must be done on the evidence. If the clinical evidence shows that we need greater controls to limit the spread of infection then we must do it.”
Dr Lincoln Sargeant, the director of public health for North Yorkshire, said while careful consideration would be given to the impact on “vital” hospitality and leisure businesses, having one lockdown status across Yorkshire and the Humber would have region-wide benefits.
He told a meeting: “There are some reasons for moving together. One is around consistency, there has been quite a number of questions around issues with borders, particularly in North Yorkshire as around us we have areas in Tier 2 and people do travel to work across the border.
“There is also concern around the potential impact on the care home sector, on infections translation into cases impacting on the older and more vulnerable population.
“So there is an argument for all of us to move into Tier 2 as I think it didn’t take very long for York to move up.”
North Yorkshire’s seven-day rolling infection rate is 129 – below the average for England which stands at 157.
It is also well below the rates in Leeds (385) and Bradford (359).
A district breakdown for Harrogate shows the rate currently stands at 161.
In Tier 2 restrictions, households are banned from mixing indoors and care home visits are restricted to “exceptional” cases. The rule on care home visits already applies across North Yorkshire until the end of this month.
No date was given for when any potential changes to the tiers in the county could be made.
Councillor Cooper added: “If we find the new tiered system difficult to understand then we need to make extra efforts to understand it correctly – to read the guidance again, to discuss what it means with friends and colleagues, to look at the detail that fits our specific circumstances on the www.gov.uk website.
“We all however know the basics – wash your hands, cover your face, create space and if you have symptoms get a test and stay home. There’s nothing difficult there.”