Robbie Moore MP on his campaign to leave Bradford Council

This month, Labour-run Bradford Council confirmed their budget for the upcoming financial year, voting through a series of measures that will have far-reaching consequences for residents across my constituency.

Labour’s budget slashes vital services, unleashes new costs on hardworking people and takes a sledgehammer to our history, widening the ever-increasing funding imbalance between my constituency and Bradford city centre.

Robbie Moore (Image: Newsquest)

To put this all into perspective, Bradford’s budget measures include:

• Closing two Household Waste and Recycling Centres in our area - Golden Butts tip in Ilkley and Sugden End tip in Cross Roads.

Golden Butts (Image: Google)

• Increasing council tax by a minimum of 4.99 per cent 

• Slashing older people's services and services for adults with disabilities

• Closing Ingleborough Hall Outdoor Activity Centre

Ingleborough Hall (Image: Bradford Council)

• Cutting community, neighbourhood and youth services

• Introducing new car parking charges for residents and businesses

• Selling off our town’s heritage via a new asset disposal strategy

Astoundingly, six of Labour’s local councillors here in Keighley voted for this budget, refusing to stand up for over 10,000 local residents who stood united against these plans and over 13,000 who participated in the budget consultation.

The local Labour councillors in my constituency who voted for the budget are:

• Cllr Mohsin Hussain (Keighley Central)

• Cllr Amjad Zaman (Keighley Central)

• Cllr Paul Godwin (Keighley West)

• Cllr Caroline Firth (Keighley East)

• Cllr Lisa Robinson (Keighley East)

• Cllr Malcolm Slater (Keighley East)

(The Labour Councillor who stood up for Keighley and voted against the budget was subsequently removed from her party.)

I must say it has been bitterly disappointing that despite recent exceptional financial support from the government, Bradford Council and Labour councillors once again actively ignored thousands of residents and voted to give the green light to this budget.

We saw the same refusal to listen in Ilkley just last year, when Bradford Council chose to push through with its controversial speed humps plan despite a decisive public poll; and the same in Keighley, when the council ignored a decisive referendum on keeping our green space on North Street.

This is not what local democracy should be about – and that’s why it continues to be my view that Keighley and Ilkley should break away from Bradford Metropolitan District Council and form our own local authority which puts local priorities first.

A view of Keighley

Some say my campaign to leave Bradford is divisive. I say Bradford Council has been dividing my constituency for decades.

According to analysis of Bradford Council’s spending by parliamentary constituency between 2017 and 2022, Bradford Council spent £242.15 less per head on residents in Keighley, Ilkley and Shipley compared to residents in Bradford East, West and South.

This funding imbalance is unfair, plain and simple.

Data supplied by Bradford Council under a Freedom of Information request also shows that a 75 per cent share of unpaid council tax debt is in Bradford East, South and West, compared to 25 per cent in Keighley, Ilkley and Shipley - that's despite Keighley, Ilkley and Shipley’s making up 48 per cent of the entire district’s council taxes.

That is why in the coming weeks and months, I will be urging residents, local councillors and community figures of all political stripes to join me in the fight to leave Bradford Council.

If you are interested in getting involved in the campaign, please get in touch with me by emailing robbie.moore.mp@parliament.uk. 

As Keighley and Ilkley’s Member of Parliament, it is my job to stand up for my constituents and make sure that local voices and views are represented –even if this may ruffle a few feathers in some parts of the wider Bradford district.