Bradford Council’s new-look warden service looks set to take to the streets from January.

The new uniformed service will see neighbourhood wardens, park rangers and civil enforcement officers merge at an extra cost of £620,000 on top of money already in the budget for parking services and park rangers.

In all, there will be 95 uniformed officers responsible for a combination of duties, from parking control to dealing with environmental and community safety issues and acting as eyes and ears for the Council and other agencies.

The officers will also be there to give out information, advice and support to residents.

Members of Bradford Council’s Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee have been told how the new warden service was developing.

The committee heard the benefits would be that officers would be trained and authorised to deal with a wider range of issues. Some of the training has included drugs and alcohol awareness, customer service skills and health and safety.

Another benefit is that there would be an increase in the number of staff able to issue fixed penalty notices for littering and dog fouling, and to hand out penalty charge notices for parking contraventions.

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