Care crisis was blindingly obvious to councils – Yorkshire Post Letters

BORIS Johnson accused care homes over the huge Covid-19 death toll, saying “nobody knew what the correct procedures were”.

Two weeks after the lockdown began, Pickering councillors were consulted about relaxing planning conditions on local occupancy of extra-care facilities at Pickering’s Mickle Hill Retirement Village in order to utilise spare capacity.

We agreed but one of our conditions was “for the safety of existing residents, staff and carers, any person moved on to this site whether temporary resident or carers, must be tested for Covid-19 prior to movement”.

We requested this simple and blindingly obvious condition without the help of a vast cohort of expert scientific advisers or the benefit of hindsight.

How remarkable that those in ultimate control, and where the buck allegedly stops, evidently didn’t impose the same common-sense condition countrywide.

From: Martin Fletcher, Thorpe Hesley, Rotherham.

I AM with Boris Johnson on care homes and coronavirus. Too many ‘fat cat’ owners did little or nothing for staff or residents until they had to.

From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.

LISTENING to Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds in reply to Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Covid mini-budget, I’m not surprised Labour got its biggest hammering since 1935 in last December’s General Election if Ms Dodds is the best they have to offer.

Seems nothing has changed with Labour.

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

I COULD not have been more unimpressed with the response of Anneliese Dodds to Rishi Sunak’s economic statement.

I struggle to understand why a front-bencher of the calibre of Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves was not appointed to this post – she would have provided credibility at the very least.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

WHAT a wonderful letter from Steve Ayton (The Yorkshire Post, July 8) summing up what many of us think of the opposition parties, TV journalists and First Ministers.

The Government is doing as good a job as any of these could, confronted with an unknown virus and learning of its diverse manifestations by the day.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor