Residents of the Cumbrian town with the highest coronavirus infection rate in the UK have demanded to know whether the local docks – where Britain’s nuclear submarines are built – were a disease-spreading hotspot.
About 9,500 people work at the UK’s largest shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, with one in three local workers employed directly by BAE Systems and many more in the supply chain.
BAE had one of the earliest outbreaks in Barrow when two workers tested positive on 14 March, prompting a rapid temporary shutdown and deep clean of certain buildings.
Two weeks after Boris Johnson announced the nationwide lockdown, a BAE contractor died from coronavirus. Noel Talbot, 44, from West Yorkshire, was the senior operations manager at Morgan Sindall, which has been working with BAE Systems on a £300m redevelopment programme. He died on 7 April, with his family paying tribute to “a larger than life character, with a mischievous sense of humour”.
BAE would not confirm how many of its Barrow workers had tested positive, nor how many had been off ill with symptoms of coronavirus. A spokeswoman said it was “a small number” and the firm “strongly rejected” the suggestion it had contributed to Barrow’s high infection rate.
Barrow continues to have the highest coronavirus infection rate in the UK, with 553 positive cases – a rate of 823.7 per 100,000.
There was unease at the shipyards when BAE decided to keep 1,500 people on site after lockdown to carry on building the new Astute-class submarines.
More than 500 people signed a petition asking for all “non-safety or security-critical” staff to be sent home. Many readers from Barrow contacted the Guardian to raise questions about the shipyard.
One woman, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s so clear to myself and other residents that the high numbers here are the result of an outbreak at the shipyard.
“The main office blocks share stairwells and thousands of people are going through the same 12 turnstiles. Because the ‘customer’ for BAE Systems is ultimately the government, at every step the company was forced to follow the government advice. In reality, with workers falling sick and confirmed cases in large shared offices, common sense should’ve seen most people sent home earlier.”
Colin Cox, Cumbria’s director of public health, said: “I am aware of lots of speculation about the possible effect of the staffing of the shipyard, but I have seen no evidence yet that would support this. I have however had a number of conversations with BAE about their plans for establishing safe systems of work and I know that they have been taking very seriously their responsibilities to their workforce and the wider community.”
According to BAE Systems, 1,500 people have continued to work in Barrow since 24 March.
Simon Fell, the local Conservative MP, said it was inevitable BAE workers would get infected.
“When one in five of the people here work in the shipyard, I’m not saying this to defend them, but it’s inevitable someone at the shipyard would get it. I think one in three working-age people from Barrow work for BAE direct,” he said. “It’s no surprise that it’s touched BAE but it’s also fair to say they have done an excellent job scaling down what they do there.”
Some people in Barrow compare the response at BAE to that at another nuclear facility further up the Cumbrian coast, which also employs about 10,000 people. Sellafield nuclear waste reprocessing plant, just outside Whitehaven, announced it would scale back operations on 18 March after a coronavirus outbreak.
Ten workers at Sellafield have tested positive, according to Jamie Reed, its head of corporate affairs.
Fell said he was confident Barrow’s infection rate was largely down to increased testing locally but said the health secretary, Matt Hancock, had agreed to look into the issue. “I can’t say I’m unconcerned, but I am quite firmly of the view that it’s because we are testing a lot more. We were testing about three weeks earlier [than other areas], we are testing care homes, which a lot of areas still aren’t doing,” he said.
BAE Systems said: “We strongly reject the suggestion that we have adversely contributed to the coronavirus infection rate in the Barrow area. Contrary to any assertion otherwise, we have followed public health guidance and required employees who were displaying symptoms, or had come into contact with someone who was displaying symptoms, to self-isolate at home while introducing preventative measures to protect the safety of our employees.
“We took the decision to send the vast majority of our employees home before the government announced the national lockdown. Since then, more than 4,500 employees have been working from home. We have restricted access on our site with fewer than one in five employees back at work and have put in place a number of measures to adhere to safety and social distancing guidelines. We continue to work closely with local authorities as we play our part in tackling this public health emergency.”
