Bradford council 'faces cuts of £30m'

The council's Financial Position Statement gave the first clear indication of the scale of the savings and cuts that the council will have to deal with in this financial year, says Bradford Labour Group.

Council leader Ian Greenwood, said: "These coalition cuts are unprecedented, draconian and punitive. They will threaten services, public and private sector jobs, undermine the local economy, and will hit people on low and moderate incomes hardest."

The savings include a total of 7.2m cuts to transport infrastructure, jeopardising improvements to the city centre, Saltaire Roundabout and the proposed new station at Low Moor.

They also include 1.8m cuts to the Future Jobs Fund; 350,000 cut from housing delivery programmes; 156,000 reduction for road safety; 7.3m cuts in council grants including 3.8m for education and children's services plus 313,000 cut in funding for free swimming.

There is also 7.8m loss of investment due to the abolition of Yorkshire Forward including 1.3m for City Park and further 3.1m cut to other city centre schemes.

Coun Geenwood said: "This is only the start. There will be much worse to come when the Chancellor publishes the Comprehensive Spending Review in October.

"The situation is going to be very difficult to manage without affecting services and vital investment and we want to talk with local communities, service users, partners, employees and other political parties about priorities for frontline services, the local economy and protecting the most vulnerable people."