The Government's handling of 'local lockdown' preparation has been panned by the mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool.
A term first introduced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month, ‘Local lockdowns’ will be used to tackle any spikes in the virus over the coming months, using a 'legal toolkit' to enforce them.
The new national Joint Biosecurity Centre - recently set up to monitor the pandemic’s data - would advise chief medical officers, ministers and local authorities about when this would be necessary.
But city leaders have for weeks now been questioning how this will work in reality - and how it will practicably be enforced.
It seems their questions remain unanswered.
At a Transport Select Committee and when asked about how prepared city leaders were for local lockdowns from a transport perspective, Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester Mayor, said the concept was 'fraught with difficulties', adding: "There is very little information out there beyond statements that the secretary of state for health has made.
"On the radio this morning he was talking about local lockdowns at a GP surgery, at hospitals, at a place of work. If local lockdown is at a specific location or building I can see it's doable - but if it's applied to a community I struggle to see how on earth that would be be enforceable in the current climate."
He said that the Government needed to issue guidance urgently to explain how a local lockdown could work - including the logistics of public transport and those who commute to or from an area in lockdown, adding: "We don't know what it means and under what powers it would be introduced."
He added: "I don't see how you would keep trams running under lockdown. What would you do if people couldn't get to work in those areas? A local furlough scheme? None of these schemes have that information."
He said he did not want to see coronavirus spreading in communities but that talk of 'putting communities under lockdown' - especially when the virus appeared to impact more severely areas of deprivation - was 'not helpful'.
He called for a different approach including 'more localised data' on 'how this virus is changing on the ground' to be considered before a lockdown.
His criticisms were echoed by Steve Rotheram, Liverpool city mayor, who questioned why the government had not consulted city authorities before announcing the idea.
He added: "During the announcement by Matt Hancock in a Downing Street briefing he specifically mentioned areas like Liverpool and Manchester, that was the scale of what a local lockdown might look like.
Describing the idea as 'very confused and disjointed', he questioned who would enforce measures, adding: "The police haven't got the capacity to do it, would we ask the military?"
The M.E.N has asked the Government for comment.
