AT a full Bradford Council meeting on Wednesday, new Reform UK council leader Stephen Place gave his first Leader’s Report since being voted into the role.
Below is the report in full, as presented to councillors.
The Telegraph & Argus has contacted the Council for more detail about Cllr Place’s claims about the One City Park development.
What the new Bradford Council leader said in FULL
Read responses from opposition parties, here.
The 7th May this year brought about a seismic change in which way this city was to be governed.
The people of Bradford turned their backs on the uniparties and decided that change was needed.
They voted in Reform UK in sufficient numbers to form a minority administration. Coming from 0 to 28 councillors was an endorsement that sent a shudder through the main parties, who, it has to be said, throughout the last fourteen years or so at national level with the Tories and here at local level with the labour party, have succeeded, not in a conspiracy but just through arrogance and incompetence to ensure this city is far from the place it should be.
The council and therefore the people of Bradford are in exceptional financial support, the people of Bradford have to find savings this financial year of £60 million and for the next two years a further £50 million per year whilst also being told their council tax must continue to rise.
In the last four years by 23% and it is set to rise, including this year and the next two years a further 15%. Children`s services was wrestled from the council and placed into a trust, in 2018 Ofsted said, “some children in the care of Bradford children`s services are in serious danger of serious harm”.
That was a shocking indictment. Homeless and rough sleeping has risen, the city is dirty, the retail offer in the city centre outside of the Broadway has been decimated, replaced by vape shops, minimarkets and gambling venues.
The stink of weed is prevalent and people regularly drinking alcohol early mornings and throughout the day is constant and in plain sight.
Large urban areas across all of Bradford have simply been neglected for years, with little investment other than of course the bare minimum to appease the people that are required to stump up their council tax and keep quiet.
They do though of course, suddenly see a flurry of activity and photographic opportunities when it comes to election time. Incidents of fly tipping have risen exponentially whilst household waste reclaiming sites were closed, five swimming and leisure facilities were lost, fireworks regularly blight people’s lives late into the night and driving in and around Bradford is often akin to being on the dodgems at a fair ground. This administration has inherited decision making that was simply staggering.
An office block built at a cost of £32 million, that four years later is worth £7 million, is still only part occupied and costing the people of Bradford circa £800,000 a year in lost revenue and interest.
A music venue that, the people of Bradford were told would cost £21 million that ended up costing them £51 million and will, over the next 25 years, return only a fraction of that investment.
The final arrogance, given this financial background was, just before the election, a reported spend of around £200,000 on new road and street signs.
When we had the council AGM on the 19th May this was all forgotten by the main opposition parties in this chamber, they sought to not accept the change the people of Bradford had voted for but to block and obfuscate and they chose to lob a hand grenade into that decision made by the people of Bradford.
This culminated in a grubby back room deal whereby they conspired to vote down any representation at chair or deputy chair level from Reform on any single committee by which this City is measured and governed.
They indeed set the tone Lord Mayor. They did not consider for one minute the wishes of the voting electorate who demanded change and wanted us to just get on with it. Undaunted, we in these seats, held out the hand of friendship, we offered a collegiate friendly and transparent wish to govern the city. But, as we will see later in this meeting, they still seek to damage and ridicule with puerile playground antics.
At 65, Lord Mayor, I did not need to put my head above that parapet, I did so for my grandchildren, Bradford, the city I love, and the all the people of Bradford regardless of background religion or political persuasion who deserve much more.
The attacks on me have not hit home, not one jot, however they have of course affected my immediate family and friends.
If anyone wishes to get to know me, my door is always open.
But, Lord Mayor, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, we have a city that is ready, ready for change and prosperity, ready for a return to what it should be and where it can be, and where it will be under this administration.
The numbers of young people in the NEET group are below that of the national average We have fabulous people throughout the city volunteering and working hard in food banks, community groups, charities and within schools and looking after our elderly in challenging circumstances.
Our football team is doing well achieving promotion in 2025
Our rugby league team is back in the Super League
We are set to come out of Exceptional financial support two years early
We have a new hospital and railway coming into the city with a new railway and bus station planned, a new village right here in the city centre and thousands of other houses are to be built over the next few years.
Much needed housing, which under this administration the people of Bradford and our veterans will get first call on.
Early talks with the business community have hopefully set alight some excitement that this city is, under this administration now “open for business”. There is a business conference planned for Tuesday 13th October where we will outline to the business community of Bradford our plans for growth and development.
A conference in City Hall will take place on August 26th where we will engage with community groups, town council clerks, chairs and ward officers plus other stakeholders including, yes, all district councillors, to tell them of our plans to devolve a variety of changes, entitled “Your city, your voice”
Also, Lord Mayor, despite the initial grubby start to stymie the people of Bradford who voted for us to take office, I am happy to report that most group leaders, but not all, have now reached out.
I have happily engaged with them, had lunch with some of them and I hope we can put the nonsense behind us and work together going forward. We will see.
We must though Lord Mayor, stop engaging in gesture politics, and political opportunism.
The faux outrage recently demonstrated by the MP for Keighley, who publicly questioned a decision not to award a substantial sum of public money to an organisation that had failed to work with the council and to complete due process which, rendered the awarding of £2.5 million of public money, tax payers money, untenable, was at best ridiculously opportunistic and at worst unfair.
False messages and untrue missives do no one any good, but they do of course seek to in some way, to gain the group directly opposite in this chamber some form of relevance.
Lord Mayor, we have an amazing opportunity to help shape the future of Bradford, its communities and its business portfolio. We must all, in this chamber serve the people who elected us first and foremost, together with hard working council staff and officers, we must look to the bigger picture for Bradford and wrap ourselves as a council around the opportunities and developments to come.
Lord Mayor this is a new time, a time that the People of Bradford demanded through the ballot box and we should all recognise and accept that, we should work together to take the city and its people onwards and upwards.