The time has come to say enough is enough with Bradford's education record.

The latest GCSE tables show that Bradford is now third from the bottom in the entire country for the percentage of pupils getting five or more A* to C grades.

Bradford Council, since taking over from the private sector company Serco which was brought in to manage education in a ten-year programme, has made a lot of promises about how it intends to improve education results and achievement.

However, grand plans notwithstanding, the results now are simply not good enough. Bradford is not just standing still, it is going backwards at an alarming rate, slipping from 140th in the country last year to 149th, out of 151.

Bradford Council must, by all means, press ahead with its long-term plans. But emergency measures are needed now to arrest this decline.

The honeymoon period in which Bradford Council might have been cut a little slack after taking over from Serco is now over – something has to be done and it has to be done now.

Because this is not really just about placings in a league table, it is about the lives and futures of our children and young people.

We simply cannot continue to fail them in this manner and urgent action must be taken to identify just why our showing is so poor and agree an action plan to arrest the decline at once.

The only way from here really is up, but that will not happen by itself. Bradford Council must take this bull by the horns immediately and work out how to reverse this dreadful situation.