MPs call for North Nottinghamshire to be kept out of tougher lockdown restrictions

Ashfield MP, Lee Anderson, along with Mansfield MP Ben Bradley and Bassetlaw MP Brendan Clarke-Smith, have sent a letter to council leaders urging them to look at the infection rates for each area rather than the county as a whole when deciding whether to put Nottinghamshire under a Tier 3 lockdown.

The letter said: “As a county we are now in Tier 2. This has huge implications for how residents live their life. It has consequences for hospitality, family life and mental health.

“If an authority’s rates of infection were to increase and warrant further restrictions, we would support the measures.

"The south of the county has huge rates of infections, the north does not. We call on you to pledge that should this disparity continue, the areas which do not justify harsher restrictions will not get grouped together with the areas that do.

"Our residents elected us to represent them and to act in their best interests, not to do what is administratively easiest for ourselves.”

And member of Ashfield’s Labour party are calling for improvement to the track and trace system to better support residents and businesses.

Natalie Fleet, Labour’s former Parliamentary candidate said: "The spread of coronavirus in Nottinghamshire will only be brought under control when we have a track and trace system that actually works.

“If people across Ashfield are being asked to go into a local lockdown, they must do so with the knowledge that the track and trace system works and that local businesses and communities aren’t being abandoned by the Government.”

And Labour’s county council candidate for Kirkby North, Julia Long, said: “Any local lockdown has to ensure that where businesses are affected by the measures that both they and their workers are safe and supported by the government.

“Many local people have already lost their jobs, Rishi Sunak’s ‘two thirds of wages plan’ is not enough and I call on the government to rethink it before more local businesses are forced to close permanently.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor