THE leader of St Helens Council has accused ministers of ‘radio silence’ over the new lockdown measures for Merseyside, admitting the first time he saw the restrictions was on Twitter.

The new restrictions were announced by Government on Friday and will apply to all council areas across Merseyside after it was made an “area of intervention”.

St Helens Borough Council leader David Baines was one of several senior politicians to criticise the Government on Twitter for the way it communicated the news.

The Labour councillor bemoaned a week of “speculation and rumour and “absolutely no clarity from Government”.

While local leaders were expecting the announcement, they were not briefed about it before the public so did not know when it was coming or what exactly it would look like.

In the end, Cllr Baines saw the confirmed restrictions via a Tweet from BBC North West Tonight.

“I was tagged by a resident,” Cllr Baines said. “A resident had seen their tweet and then they tagged me in the reply.

“It’s annoying. We’d sort of guessed by then what was going to be implemented on us, but we didn’t know for sure and we didn’t know when it was going to be announced exactly.

“We’ve still not got the regulations, so we still don’t know the detail.”

The Department for Health said the new restrictions, which come into force next Tuesday, have been developed following consultation with local councils and MPs.

But Cllr Baines insisted that “no meaningful consultation” has taken place.

After Merseyside was put onto the Government’s coronavirus watch list last Friday, St Helens Council was asked to come up with a plan detailing what extra powers or extra support it would like.

This plan was sent to the Government on Tuesday.

“We were expecting more feedback,” Cllr Baines said. “We were expecting that to be like a conversation but there’s been no feedback from that.

“We’ve just then heard nothing but rumour and speculation. I know Conor (McGinn) and Marie (Rimmer) have been asking for meetings with ministers and they’ve been ignored.

“It’s been absolute radio silence to be honest. I’m picking up information second hand, on the grapevine, not knowing what’s true and what’s not.

“It’s been an absolute shambles on the Government’s part.”

St Helens Star: Cllr David Baines, leader of St Helens Borough Council Cllr David Baines, leader of St Helens Borough Council

St Helens’ outbreak management board, which is chaired by Cllr Baines, convened for the fourth time this week today to take stock of the new rules.

Cllr Baines said the board, which is made up of MPs, public health, cabinet members and senior council officers, is also frustrated by the lack of information from the Government.

Local leaders are now putting their trust in the people of the borough to work together to help bring the infection rate down.

Cllr Baines said: “We understand why these restrictions, these new rules have been brought in.

“There is a need for them because the Covid rate is rising and what we don’t want to do is wait a few more weeks to see hospital admissions rising, and God forbid excess deaths increasing again.

“We don’t want to wait till that point, we want to nip it in the bud now and get the trend going the other way. Hopefully, this will have that impact.

“I trust residents and I trust businesses to be responsible and to be sensible and to all work together to help make that happen.”