Coronavirus: Plea to ease Stockport and Bolton lockdowns

Leaders in Greater Manchester have agreed to ask the government to ease lockdown rules in Stockport and Bolton.

Extra restrictions imposed just under a month ago were lifted earlier in Wigan.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said tighter rules had clearly worked and infection rates had decreased in eight of the region's 10 boroughs.

However he strongly opposed proposals to lift restrictions on a ward-by-ward basis calling it a "recipe for utter confusion, division and chaos".

Mr Burnham said he and the region's council leaders would write to Health Secretary Matt Hancock to request the changes later on Wednesday.

Tighter rules were introduced in July in Greater Manchester and other parts of England and Scotland to help stop the spread of Covid-19 after concerns that the virus was being spread between households.

Mr Burnham said leaders had agreed to request an easing only in Bolton and Stockport while backing continued restrictions in the remaining seven boroughs.

Figures show that the infection rate in Bolton had reduced to 16.3 last week from 28.9 the previous week whilst Stockport fell from 21.5 to 11.3 in the same period.

"In my view, the leaders are right to call for an extension of restrictions as rates are still high... especially as we look to schools returning.

"But ultimately it is their [the government] decision, not ours," he said.

The mayor praised the hard work of residents and health workers but raised concerns about the supply of home testing kits and the efficacy of the test and trace system.

He said "much greater local control over test and trace is needed" alongside financial support for workers to self-isolate when needed in order to protect less affluent communities.

"It isn't working in Greater Manchester - we were promised more local resources and they haven't come through," he said.

"It's right that schools reopen but if we don't improve NHS test and trace in a matter of weeks then we are taking unacceptable levels of risk going into the autumn and winter," he said.

Mr Burnham also said leaders were against proposals for dealing with restrictions ward by ward rather than at the council level because "nobody wants to see division in boroughs".

"It is not a road we should go down. It's a recipe for utter confusion, division and chaos. We are saying to government that we do not want to work in that way," he said.

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