Residents of a small Runcorn neighbourhood are more likely to have died of coronavirus than anywhere else in the Liverpool City Region.

The Palacefields area suffered 26 Covid-19 deaths between March and May – almost half the total death toll for all of Runcorn, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Not only is this one of the highest death tolls in the city region, the area’s small population means its mortality rate from the virus is 360 deaths per 100,000 residents.

This is more than three times the mortality rate for the whole city region, four times the mortality rate for the borough and the highest death rate for any neighbourhood in the region.

It is not clear why Palacefields has suffered such a high number of deaths, but ward councillor Dave Thompson suggested outbreaks in the area’s care homes could have played a role.

Cllr Thompson said: “The national care crisis we face in this country is real local concern. As we come out of the crisis there needs to be a public enquiry into the response to the pandemic prior to the delayed closedown.”

Halton Lea and Brookvale, the ONS area that covers Palacefields, houses two large care homes – St Luke’s, a 56-bed care home run by Halton Council, and Beechcroft, a 67-bed facility run by private provider HC-One.

Cllr Thompson added: “I believe that the government has been negligent in not acting sooner in tackling the pandemic. The slowness of understanding so many deaths could be likely amongst our most vulnerable people in care homes is shocking.

“The government needed to have been testing there from the start and it didn’t.”

While neither the council nor HC-One was able to provide precise figures for deaths at St Luke’s and Beechcroft, HC-One did confirm that its care home had experienced an outbreak of coronavirus that caused the deaths of a number of residents.

A spokesperson for HC-One said: “Our thoughts and sympathies are with all families who have lost a loved one from coronavirus and we are doing our utmost to support them during this difficult time.

“Caring for our residents and supporting our colleagues is at the heart of what we do, and we are doing everything we can to make sure our residents and colleagues stay safe and well throughout these challenging times.”

The spokesperson added that Beechcroft was now in “recovery” and the home had instituted “a comprehensive coronavirus contingency plan” to protect staff and residents from the virus.

Another factor in Palacefields’ high death rate could be its high levels of deprivation, which has been linked to higher death tolls from coronavirus.

More than half of the area’s population live in the country’s most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods, and Halton Lea has some of the borough’s worst rates for unemployment and children on free school meals.

In total, coronavirus had killed 106 people in Halton by the end of May, with 32 of those deaths occurring in care homes.

After Palacefields, Ditton and Hale Bank suffered the highest death rates in the borough, recording 12 and 11 deaths respectively.