TEAMS working on Covid-19 home testing in Bradford have come under attack while out in communities, a meeting heard.

The worrying news was revealed during an update to the Bradford West Area Committee on the Council's response to the pandemic.

Ian Day, who has been overseeing the response, said there has been a lot of positive and helpful feedback, but spoke of the challenges some workers had faced.

He said: "We have also had some people who have been unhappy to have interventions in the communities and we have had staff threatened, we’ve had lanyards pulled from staff’s necks when they’ve turned up at people’s homes and we’ve had vehicles damaged, where we’ve attended communities for home testing.

"That has been quite challenging in parts and a result of that we’ve changed our approach and before we go and do home testing, we are spending a couple of days beforehand knocking on doors and encouraging people to participate and local councillors have been encouraged to join us in that piece of work, and have been phenomenal in the response and have really helped provide that reassurance through their knowledge of individual communities that has no doubt been a key part in increasing those numbers up to 2,000, where we were previously getting about 1,000."

He said the support had been appreciated.

However, Councillor Mohammed Amran (Lab, Heaton) raised serious concerns about the work being carried out and the recruitment process for staff.

“I’ve had real bad experience, members of my community have had bad experience of some of the people who have been out on the doorstep," he said.

“They come to me with complaints and I’ve raised it."

Cllr Amran questioned what was being done in "hard to reach" areas, highlighting his own experience of what he had seen in and around his ward.

Mr Day said he thought, overall, staff had been doing an "incredible job", but Cllr Amran criticised a "lack of communication".

He said: "Because of personal experience and also I’ve had Covid, I’ve been in hospital quite seriously ill, so I have to disagree with you because I get an email saying ‘10am today we’ll be in Toller ward’ that’s on the day, so I don’t have time to promote that. There’s a lack of communication."

He said he had never seen people out in Heaton as much and raised particular concern over big groups of people, where he said there was no engagement.

“I’m really concerned how you’re running things in certain areas," Cllr Amran said.

"Some staff have good links with certain areas so they know how to run that, but in Bradford West, especially Heaton ward, I can speak, I think there’s lack of activities.

"I’ve raised concerns. I just think there’s slacking going on and it’s about life and death. This is about life and death. The message needs to be right."

He said he wanted a written report in the next meeting regarding the recruitment of the new batch of workers, with a breakdown of the communities they are from and what they are doing to engage people.

"You need to talk to elected members because they understand the communities a lot better because they’re out there everyday and serving them," he said.