BRADFORD Council’s plans to slash £40m from its budget over the next three years have been described as “a car crash” and “infuriating but not surprising” by councillors and MPs.
On Wednesday, the Council revealed the first step of its plans to attempt to stave off effective bankruptcy by making a swathe of cuts.
Under the proposals, three household waste centres, in Queensbury, Cross Roads and Ilkley, would shut, over 110 jobs would be lost and a children’s outdoor activity centre in North Yorkshire sold off.
Council tax would rise by five per cent and a review of library and leisure services could lead to further cuts.
Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said the Council’s perilous financial situation was down to a mix of rising costs of social care and cuts to Government funding for Councils.
She said over the coming years the financial situation meant that Bradford Council would “become a much smaller Council – employing fewer people and providing fewer services.”
After the announcement, Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore (Cons) said: “It is infuriating but unfortunately not surprising that under Labour’s watch – Susan Hinchcliffe and her team have bled Bradford Council dry by wasting money on glorified white elephant projects, non-statutory schemes and their gross mismanagement of children’s services.
“Cllr Hinchcliffe’s attempt to blame everyone but herself for leading the council to bankruptcy isn’t fooling anyone.
“It wasn’t the government who decided to spend £15m on the Kirkgate Centre whilst at the same time failing catastrophically to protect our children; it wasn’t the government who decided to get involved in the £35 million One City Park white elephant project whilst attempting to slash Keighley and Ilkley’s statutory services; and it wasn’t the government who decided to splash nearly £200,000 on staff gift cards as the district sunk into financial ruin.
“If Bradford Council wanted to start saving some money – perhaps they could start by scrapping ill-thought through schemes that the vast majority of people do not want – like their ridiculous town-wide 20 mph scheme in Ilkley in which they plan to plaster the town with speed humps, costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands.”
Shipley MP Philip Davies (Cons) said: “Susan Hinchcliffe’s attempt to blame everyone but herself for burning through the huge reserves Bradford Council had and leading the council to bankruptcy won’t work and isn’t fooling anyone.
“The fact that Bradford Council chose to spend over half of the recent full council meeting debating Gaza and Israel over which they have no remit, rather than spending the whole meeting discussing their financial crisis tells you everything about their wrong-headed priorities.
“If Susan Hinchcliffe wants to make the point that she is powerless to deal with Bradford Council’s finances then I can only suggest she makes way for someone who can.
“The old maxim that the Labour Party always runs out of other people’s money has never been more true than here in Bradford”
Bradford East MP Imran Hussain (Lab) said: “The reality is that after colossal reductions in Government funding for almost every local council since 2015, and after Bradford Council’s funding being cut in half between 2010 and 2020 by Ministers sat 200 miles away in Whitehall, the blame for the painful choices that the Council now must make lies squarely with George Osborne, his brutal and ideological austerity project, and 14 years of a Tory Government happy to pick the pockets of people in Bradford to line their own.
“Local councils provide too many important services that support the most vulnerable, that many people rely on, and that enrich all of our lives, and we all want to see these services continue.
“The choice facing the Chancellor when he announces his budget in just under 12 weeks’ time is therefore clear, and he must either end the financial attack on local councils and give them the funding and powers they need, or force the closure of yet more vital services in Bradford.”
Councillor Rebecca Poulsen, Leader of the Conservative Group and Councillor Mike Pollard, Conservative Group Spokesman for Finance and Projects said despite repeatedly complaining at the highest levels within the council regarding being informed via media of serious Council matters, they were not yet able to offer a substantive response to the Council’s latest update regarding “the Labour Group’s catastrophic mismanagement of Bradford Council’s finances and its effective ‘bankruptcy’” as they were only provided with the report almost an hour after the live updates began on the T&A website.
Cllr Poulsen went on to say: “Our initial thoughts are the proposals are ill thought out and have been rushed in by a Council Leadership who have not wanted to see the financial situation unfolding. Some of the proposals need further clarity so residents can fully engage in the consultation, such as leisure and library services.
“Other proposals such as closing HWRCs at three locations will increase costs to clear fly tipping in the most rural parts of the district. Bringing in ANPR to limit your use of the HWRCs and charging you to park outside your own property are likely to big of major concern to residents.”
Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Bradford Council Cllr Brendan Stubbs said: “This is a car crash we have all seen coming for over a year. The Labour Leadership have failed to listen to opposition voices, ploughing on with pet projects as cost spiral and failing to sort out broken services.
“Labour will shout this is all the Government’s fault, but the truth is it is a combination of poor leadership in City Hall combined with Conservative Government failures that have led us to this day. Everyone in the district knows it.
“The scale of the cuts announced today will shock residents in the district.”
Leader of the Green Party in Bradford, Matt Edwards said: “The cuts being proposed are brutal.
“There is no getting away from the fact Bradford residents are going to be paying more for less services.
“Bradford is absolutely not alone in this position. We have already seen big metropolitan councils like Nottingham and Birmingham issue Section 114 notices – effectively declaring bankruptcy. We have to be honest that whilst we aren’t quite there yet. Bradford is not far from that position.
Bradford taxpayers are paying the price for a Conservative government that is chronically underfunding our Councils and the mismanagement of Children’s Services under this Labour administration.”
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