My inbox is full of emails from people in Calder Valley who are now becoming increasingly angry at the ineptitude of local leaders with their handling of the local restrictions.
Make no mistake, the government are also to blame for blindly taking the advice of our local council who advise them on which areas should be locked down.
Calderdale Council’s Chief executive and Director of Public Health say that they don’t have the facility or resource to manage anything but a Borough-wide lock down. However only two weeks ago the Leader of our Council, with a great fanfare, announced to the world that Calderdale were to launch their own Track and Trace system. A system which would allow them to pinpoint exactly where the spikes are. The reality is that this isn’t a standalone system but one extra tier that sits on top of the national system. I know this because I was lobbying the Prime Minister and Health Minister for this to happen alongside Calderdale.
Unlike the national system where only 56% of people answer the calls from Track and Trace, the local system picks up those calls that aren’t taken, continues to call and if that fails, Council Officers go and knock on the door of the person ignoring the calls.
So, contrary to claims by the local leaders, they have exactly the tool which allows them to pinpoint with accuracy where the spikes are occurring.
We also know that the majority (but not all) of the spikes in reinfection are coming from two wards and one ward in particular, from a total of 17 wards in the whole Borough. I will re-emphasise that there have been new cases across the Borough on odd weeks but in single digits. Park Ward in Halifax has consistently had double digit figures now, every week, for at least 2 months (these are new cases every week). We have seen no ward in the Calder Valley have recurring cases in any week in those last 2 months.
So why lock down the whole Borough when the Chief Executive and Director of Public Health not only have the tools to pinpoint with accuracy where the infection rate hot spots are but also have government backing to do so?
Three weeks ago, I was branded a "racist" and it was said that I am being divisive for highlighting the issue. Ironically, by doing nothing to address the real issues and continuing to keep the whole Borough in lockdown, our local leaders are being hugely divisive to the point where there is now genuine anger in the Borough. The MP for Halifax (whose constituency covers the spikes) said at the time, “We are all looking at packed beaches, mass football celebrations and excessive drinking on nights out with despair. That isn’t taking this seriously." I don’t know whether anyone has pointed out that Halifax doesn’t have a beach, we haven’t had much to celebrate at Halifax Town for some years and on the whole, the spikes are happening in wards where the vast majority do not drink.
Only this morning I’ve had business owners from those wards in Halifax call me to ask when the Police are going to intervene with the mass gatherings of young people, revving their high marque cars in the streets of the wards with high infection rates. This by all accounts is not a one-off situation but a frequent one (as also reported in the Examiner).
Meanwhile, the vast majority of people in these high infection wards who take the lockdown seriously are watching through their windows in despair. The rest of us throughout the Borough who take this seriously are needlessly in lockdown because of the actions of relatively few people.
Meanwhile, the local economy continues to take a hit. Many businesses which have been able to open nationally, are still not able to open locally because of the local restrictions. Some people are on the verge of bankruptcy, with jobs being lost and lives turned upside down.
It is time those local leaders address the real issue here and stop penalising the whole Borough because of a small area with very high spikes. They have the tools, they have the data. All we need now is for them to take real responsibility and do the right thing.