THIS weekend is Cheshire's second under tier 2 restrictions and despite a long, arduous road to this point the battles over the future of the county's Covid-19 response are still ongoing.

However, round two is not over restrictions — it's about support.

While Andy Burnham's toe-to-toe stand-off with Westminster grabbed many headlines in regional and national press, other northern leaders — including Cheshire's Sam Corcoran and Louise Gittins — have been making the case that like Greater Manchester, Cheshire needs more support.

What are they arguing over?

This week, in the House of Commons, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a new wave of funding to help businesses that have seen a downturn in trade due to extra restrictions — with the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sectors in tier 2 areas able to claim £2,100 per month in cash grants.

Crucially, this money is backdated — so, for example, bars in Stockport can claim for the months over the summer when Greater Manchester was under the predecessor of tier 2.

While Cheshire West leaders and MPs welcome the news, some are still perplexed it's taken this long to get to this stage.

Mike Amesbury, Weaver Vale MP, tweeted saying "together with [Louise Gittins, Justin Madders, and Chris Matheson] have been making this case over and over again, we now need to get it businesses urgently".

A few hours later, at Cheshire West and Chester's full council meeting, those sentiments were echoed by Cllr Gittins: "I am pleased that the Chancellor has made an announcement for tier 2 [support] and I am glad they have listened.

"There cannot be a repeat of what we have seen in Greater Manchester, and that is why I am pleased that we have cross party support [for this motion]."

The motion in question attracted cross-party approval and gave CWAC's leader the go-ahead to lobby the Ministry for Communities, Housing, Local Government for a package of support.

Cllr Gittins says she did not hear anything from Whitehall prior to Mr Sunak's announcement — but she's not the only one to be on the end of radio silence.

Cheshire East leader Sam Corcoran says his September 22 request for additional enforcement powers still has not received a response, and this was chased up by Mr Amesbury in the Commons chamber this week.

Furthermore, Cllr Corcoran's and Cllr Gittins' detailed, nine-page document sent on October 2 — which set out what Cheshire and Warrington needed in terms of support and controls to deal with the pandemic — also has not been replied to.

That document is now available to view on Cheshire East's website, and its request included:

• £13 million for increased test and trace capacity
• £5m for education and enforcement
• £23m in business support.

So if Rishi Sunak has promised more support, why is debate carrying on?

The purpose of the document — which came to a total cost of £45m between the three authorities — was to be proactive, not reactive, argue leaders.

When Cheshire East was placed in tier 2, Cllr Corcoran said: "Disappointingly, we were not consulted on new restrictions planned for implementation in Cheshire East. This is despite us, with Cheshire West and Warrington councils and the Local Enterprise Partnership, writing in detail to the Secretary of State for Health setting out our asks of government over a week ago, with no reply.

"We developed our asks of government in order to take action early and effectively, on the basis of a stitch in time saves nine. In the delay we have seen a substantial rise in cases."

On this basis, the lack of communication between London and the north west therefore puts CWAC and CEC leaders in a tight spot.

With Warrington agreeing a deal to enter tier 3, officials are concerned that a similar lack of outside help in Cheshire could see the two boroughs go the same way.

And that means local leaders are left to manage their own responses, despite not having the resources to do so effectively, they claim.

Will Cheshire East and West go into tier 3 then?

The good news is that current infection rates in both boroughs seem to be flattening off since the introduction of tier 2 measures.

It's important to bear in mind though that this does not mean infection rates are reducing — it means increases are slowing down.

CWAC's Director of Public Health Ian Ashworth also warned that it was too early to say if these trends were long-term, or a delay in the reporting of cases over the weekends.

Cllr Corcoran, from a CEC perspective, also "does not want to see" tier 3 imposed on the borough, so it appears very unlikely that he will be asking for more restrictions.

One caveat to all of this is that last time each borough moved up the tier ladder, MPs and councillors only got 20 minutes of notice before the announcement by the Prime Minister.