Row erupts over Calderdale test and trace funding

A ruling Labour group motion – which was supported by a majority of councillors – called on Government to provide more support to the scheme,recognising the “unique local ‘boots on the ground’ insight” brought by local councils to tackle the pandemic and accept developing local teams would help reduce the risk of the virus transmitting.

This meant giving greater support to the localised test, trace and isolate systems run by council teams with a staged transfer of funding and responsibility to local government, allowing local teams to follow up contacts right through the system.

This would enable them to identify possible transmission routes in workplaces and the community more speedily, said Leader of the Council, Coun Tim Swift (Lab, Town).

As part of this, financial gaps needed to be fixed for financial support for the self-employed and further financial support for low paid and vulnerable workers who had to self-isolate.

“There are still too many delays in the system. We want test, track and trace to work well, it has to happen quickly,” he said.

More than half the people applying for help from a self-isolation Government fund did not qualify, said Coun Swift.

“If people can’t afford to self-isolate, test, track and trace won’t work,” he said.

Coun Swift said these issues were all “eminently fixable” at less cost to money “poured” into the national test and trace programme and other schemes like an instance of PPE that had performed poorly.

But an angry Coun Steven Leigh (Ryburn), leader of the Conservative group, said: “The thing that makes us unable to support this is there is no credit to the Government who have put £400 billion – huge funding – into this.

“It is asking for things to be done that are already being done,” he said.

Coun Paul Bellenger (Lib Dem, Greetland and Stainland) criticised “huge contracts and pocket lining that’s gone on during the COVID-19 pandemic”.

“You sometimes have to wonder about Government spending priorities,” he added, with a need to give us money without strings attached for things like test and trace which could be better done locally.

Coun Susan Press (Lab, Todmorden) said “The issue for a lot of us is a lot of money has been misspent and mismanaged and not given to where it is needed.”

Coun Howard Blagbrough (Con, Brighouse) asked what any of that had to do with the motion. The council would do better to spend more time on its own projects like Northgate at Halifax where they needed to improve, he said.

Coun Scott Benton (Con, Brighouse), who is also MP for Blackpool North, said: “Demonising of the private sector is nonsense and rubbishes projects as a whole.”