The Executive Member for Economy and Planning on the city council has said that they will press the Government for more support to keep hard pressed businesses going.
Cllr Andrew Waller said this second lockdown will clearly come at a very difficult time, given how long many individuals and businesses have been struggling.
He says that with so many differing projections of Covid-19 rates it was impossible for politicians let alone scientists to precisely predict the outcomes of the measures that have been, what he described as, belatedly announced.
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Andrew Waller, a Lib Dem councillor, added:
“We must remember those who will still be expected to go into work, and schools.
Ensuring that the NHS can cope with the second wave has to be a priority, and all the steps needed to mitigate transmission and uncontrolled spread.
Some of these steps have not progressed as fast as they could have done if local systems had been resourced rather than national contracts which have not delivered and lost valuable time.
Test and Trace could have been better run locally as has recently been demonstrated.
Support for businesses will be critical to help them survive, especially the crucial run up to Christmas which many rely upon for the rest of the year.
So much work had gone into reopening the city to keep it as safe as possible.
We will make the case to Government for more support and Saturday’s announcement may in some way explain the lack of any written guidance following the Chancellor’s announcement 9 days ago.
As the Executive Member for Economy and Planning I will be looking at how the council can do all it can to help businesses keep running, and ensure support from Government is swiftly delivered to where it is needed.
A comprehensive approach to helping residents to support local small businesses will be developed again, and I will work with others to make sure there is a response to help businesses to keep going.”
Last night Phil Pinder of the York Retail Forum said:
“If we’re shutting down retail, then we need extra financial support, or this will decimate the High Street.
M&S is set to announce its first ever trading loss, not even world war and many bombed shops caused this before.
November is a very important month, and we’re effectively handing Christmas shopping to online retailers.”
Cllr Paul Doughty, who is Conservative group leader on City of York Council thinks that stricter measures as a breaker might give a chance for families to spend some time at Christmas. But he is very concerned for the effects on the economy and jobs.
A tweet from @CityofYork council said:
“Please continue to follow the local rules for York. We will publish further details when we have more information. Let’s keep looking after each other as we always do.”
And North Yorkshire’s Police and Fire Commissioner, Julia Mulligan, has called on the public to support officers and frontline staff who are there to protect us. She asked that everyone abide by the new rules.