Northampton opposition parties say Greencore cases should have been made public sooner by Public Health

Lucy Wightman has come under fire this week for choosing not to share almost 300 positive COVID-19 cases with the public sooner.

At a press conference on Friday, the Chronicle & Echo asked Ms Wightman why the county was only just hearing about these outbreaks all at once.

In response, she said she had not considered the public would be interested but it was spoken about "freely" in Covid-19 oversight meetings.

Northampton has been warned about heading into a local lockdown for over three weeks, with warnings not to car share, to limit contact with other households and to steer clear of public transport.

Opposition parties in Northampton have criticised the lack of transparency - and have asked how the public can make informed decisions without the full picture.

Sally Keeble, former Northampton Labour MP, said to have 15 percent of a workforce test positive is "appalling".

She said: "The information should have been made public earlier with a full explanation of actions to support the Greencore workers, including with their transport to and from work. Transparency is key for public accountability and trust.

"It's wrong to blame the victims of the pandemic. These are some of the most vulnerable groups of workers and any public or occupational health strategy has to respond to the realities of their lives. Sadly this often means zero hours contracts with limited rights to sick pay, lack of affordable, safe transport and inadequate, overcrowded housing. Covid-19 exploits the inequalities in our society, as we've seen in Leicester as well as Northampton."

Martin Sawyer, from Northampton's Liberal Democrats, said "something has gone seriously wrong at the factory".

He added: "In a professional capacity I visit two or three warehouse facilities every week and I see the challenges that these facilities face in implementing government guidelines and protecting staff during this pandemic. Unfortunately, some companies still don’t appreciate the severity of the situation and have been slow to implement sufficient safety measures. Greencore have now implemented a private testing programme but many similar companies did this months ago.

"Northampton Borough Council seem to be surprised by this outbreak at Greencore but there have been similar outbreaks across the country, and I am concerned that there are other companies out there locally who could just as easily find themselves with an outbreak on their premises.

"The council have a history when it comes to lack of transparency and this seems to have now extended into Public Health. The residents of Northampton should have been informed of these positive COVID-19 tests earlier and given the opportunity to modify their behaviours in order to keep themselves safe."

Danielle Stone, leader of Northampton's Labour Group, said: "I am concerned. The company could have been taking some measures like temperature testing.

"The issues are car sharing, so why was this not discouraged? Employees living in HIMOs should be a red flag across the town, no mask no ride on public transport needs to be enforced and we need more monitoring of what's going on in the hospitality trade."

The Chron has since asked Public Health Northants where the 20 different outbreaks are located across the county and this newspaper is awaiting a response.