Many in Bradford have faced a 'miserable' lockdown stuck indoors - meeting hears

Having spent the lion’s share of a year “looking at the same four walls and watching television”, an increasingly frustrated population is feeling “absolutely driven into the ground” by the restrictions, a councillor warned.

Meanwhile, officials have also discussed a concerning rise in domestic violence during lockdown, with Bradford’s refuges regularly fully occupied as desperate victims seek to escape their homes.

With families often confined to their living quarters, there are fears that an increasing number of the city’s children are having to witness shocking incidents of domestic abuse – with victims “stuck in situations they haven't been able to get out of."

Noise complaints across Bradford also grew at the start of lockdown, as the habits of cooped-up residents started to grate on their neighbours.

Councillor Paul Godwin (Lab, Keighley West) was describing the plight that many retired people in the district have faced due to lockdown, where they “can’t do anything except sit and look at the four walls and watch television” for the best part of a year.

He said lockdown would have been particularly bad for people without gardens.

‘This too shall pass’: Mental health tips for lockdown two

And Bradford Council’s head of public health acknowledged that measures to stop the spread of the virus will leave many with mental health issues once restrictions are eventually lifted.

Cllr Godwin made the comments at a meeting of the Council’s Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee last week, where members were told that the age group most likely to break lockdown restrictions was people in the 50-69 bracket.

The information came from the Office of National Statistics, and referred to date showing how many people have had contact with someone indoors who was outside their household.

It is thought this age group is most likely to break restrictions on interacting with other people outside your immediate household as they seek to maintain links with family members, both older and younger.

Ian Day, Assistant Director for Neighbourhood and Customer Services, told the committee: “Young people are feeling stigmatised as super-spreaders. But the age bracket most likely to break lock down is 50 to 69 year olds.

“They may feel it is ok to just pop round to visit a relative who lives two doors down because they have always done that.”

Cllr Godwin replied by saying: “You have to consider that in Bradford from April to now we have been in lockdown essentially.”

Pointing out that he fell into that age bracket, Cllr Godwin, who also works as a doctor, said: “I was sitting in my house looking at four walls all day every day while my wife was away looking after her mother.

“If you have done that from April until now you can imagine the frustration of our population.

“Opening pubs wasn’t so interesting to me as I haven’t been to pubs for two or three years, but I haven’t been able to do any other activities such as meeting with other people in my age group.

“I have been able to go to work as a doctor, but for people who don’t have a large house and a garden like me must have been absolutely driven into the ground by this.

“They’ve had no respite since the beginning of April and it really is a frustrating, miserable process that they have been subjected to.

“I’ve had some respite, but some people in that age group will have had no respite.”

He said when lockdown started he wrote to Council bosses to say how miserable lockdown would be for many, and how people should be given guidance on places near their homes they could visit for exercise and to pass the time.

He added: “It is now really difficult for people who have been subjected to this for eight months, and I suspect in reality it will be a year by the time we’re out of this process.

“What we’ve done is bang people up in that age group all year, with nothing to do. They don’t work, they’re stuck at home, they can’t visit their family, they can’t do anything except sit and look at the four walls and watch television.

“Now, what a miserable existence that has been.”

Sarah Muckle, Director of Public Health on Bradford Council, said: “Good point, I agree. We’ll have some real mental health issues to deal with.”

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Executive for Healthy People and Places, said many Council staff had been deployed to send out packs to isolated people with activities they can do while at home, and there were also several online activities people could access.”

A separate committee recently heard details of how lockdown had impacted crime rates.

A new report looking at crime in the Bradford District was presented to members of Bradford Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee at a meeting on Thursday evening.

Although there were reductions in some crimes, such as serious sexual assault, there was a rise in domestic violence.

And noise complaints in the first few weeks of lockdown were up 70 per cent on the previous year.

The report of the Bradford Safer Communities Partnership shows that in the period immediately after lockdown was implemented in late March, there was a 6.7 per cent rise in domestic incidents reported to police than the period before lockdown.

There was an increase in the amount of children witnessing domestic violence, and an increase in the amount of domestic abuse incidents classed as high risk, an average of 87 per month since April in comparison to a 63 per month average for last year.

Refuges were also regularly full, with lockdown leaving domestic abuse victims few other options to escape abuse in their homes.

Since lockdown began Bradford’s refused had no vacancies 65 per cent of the time, and only had one vacancy 30 of the time.

Michael Churley, assistant area co-ordinator, said: “There is a concern people have been stuck in situations they haven’t been able to get out of.”

Councillor David Green (Lab, Wibsey) asked how refuges were coping financially.

Members were told that Bradford Council had allocated £900,000 to mitigate increased risks caused during the Covid pandemic from domestic abuse.

The partnership has been very active to secure government and grant funding available and over £850,000 has been received to support survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and their families in the Bradford district.

Members heard that despite lockdown, there had been an increase in anti-social behaviour compared to the previous year of 14.8 per cent.

The report said this was “largely down to significant increases in complaints about nuisance vehicles, motor cycles and quads.”

Mr Churley said the partnership was looking to invest more in CCTV to try to reduce anti social behaviour, as well as being more pro-active in speaking to victims.

The report said: “Lockdown and spending more time at home has led to a significant increase in the level of noise related complaints reported to Bradford Council’s Environmental Services – between April and June 2020 – a 70 per cent increase on the same period the previous year.”

“Of all environmental health incidents recorded between April 1 – June 30, 32 per cent of these were noise complaints, 30 per cent were domestic refuse related and 27 per cent were related to fly tipping.”