WEST Yorkshire leaders are set to hold crunch talks with the Government about whether the county should be moved into Tier 3.

Bradford, along with the rest of the county in Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield, was placed into Tier 2 earlier this week, with the Prime Minister's new local Covid alert system coming into force on Wednesday.

Just days later, talks have been underway over the Pennines in Lancashire and Greater Manchester about whether those areas should be moved into Tier 3.

The same talks were set to began for West Yorkshire tonight, Kirklees Council said earlier, but there are suggestions that the talks may have been postponed.

Earlier, Kirklees Council leader Shabir Pandor said: “The Government announced West Yorkshire should be in Tier Two on Monday.

"Just a couple of days later, they’re now talking about Tier Three. With all the economic and social upheaval that will cause, it’s no wonder people and businesses in our area are fed up with the rules chopping and changing all the time.

"The Government needs to understand the public mood and take what they are saying very seriously.

“Tier Three would hurt Kirklees families and businesses without bringing the health benefits we all want to see. Even the Government’s scientific advisors don’t think those restrictions will work.

"It’s an approach that’s led by neither the data nor the science. The Government needs to support local communities, local businesses and give councils the power and the resources to help them tackle this pandemic.

“We have an opportunity right now to make the current restrictions work. With some extra Government support, our community will pull together to protect the NHS and save lives.

"We need to focus on our ongoing work out there in communities, supporting vulnerable people and suppressing the virus. Interpreting yet more London rules and regulations is a damaging distraction from that vital work.  

“Kirklees has had local restrictions in place since July. Local people have paid a heavy price for that in terms of lost business and separation from family and friends.

"In that time, we’ve dropped from being in the top four local authorities to now being in the top 40 in terms of infection rates. We know our local approach, trusting communities to pull together, will be far more effective than rewriting the rulebook every week.   

“If it’s a national problem, the Government should be thinking about a national approach. I’m not convinced at all that Tier Three restrictions is the right answer for Kirklees.”