Council requests enhanced COVID-19 restrictions

The authority which is also seeking more resources to support its fight against the virus, sent its request to Public Health England this morning and it will subsequently go to Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Prime Minister Boris Johnson for approval.

As a result, it is likely that the Borough will be designated an Area of Intervention later this week.

Councillor Shane Moore, Leader of Hartlepool Borough Council, said: “This is something we have thought long and hard about and the decision to apply for tighter restrictions isn’t one that we have taken lightly.

“By being proactive and engaging with the Government in this way we aim to shape the restrictions to best meet the needs of Hartlepool and its residents at a very difficult time. Hopefully, this will potentially avoid the need for far more draconian measures to be imposed upon us without any say.

“We’d like to thank people for their continued support in the fight against this virus, but despite our best efforts we feel that the time has come for more formal action.”

The latest figures show that there were 120 cases over the seven days up to Sunday 27 September – up from 46 for the seven days before that.

The measures being requested by the Council are:

• Social contact restrictions which prevent people living in Hartlepool from hosting people they do not live with in their home, unless they are in their support bubble, or meeting people they do not live with in their home, either inside or outside, unless they are in their support bubble. It says these restrictions should take into account the need for informal childcare to continue.

• Resources to pay for additional police to support enforcement activity.

• Rapid deployment of COVID-19 testing sites.

• Additional resources to support vulnerable people.

• Funding to enable the capacity of environmental health and public health teams to be increased to support education and enforcement.
• Greater support for local businesses.

• Measures that allow councils to take action against premises which fail to protect the public.

Councillor Moore added: “The increasingly rapid rise in cases in Hartlepool is exceptionally worrying and we are now starting to see an increase in cases amongst older people, in addition to the young.”

“We know that a lot of the infections are being passed on by people visiting other households and it is vital that we all take action now to slow the spread of the virus and to keep each other safe.”