July 2000

Labour ambush council (July 19, 2000)

Albion Street on track to replace Abbey Road (11 July, 2000)

City hosts major "Community Safety" conference (July 1, 2000)

Labour ambush council

The Labour group on Bradford Council pulled off some surprise victories at Thursday's full council meeting by pushing through a number of last minute "motions" with the support of the Liberal Democrats and Greens, much to the fury of the ruling Tory group.

Labour managed to extract a further £25,000 for summer play schemes, and set up an all-party working group to develop a plan to regenerate derelict properties in Shipley.

Even the single Green councillor David Ford managed to steal the Tory thunder in a debate on the governments fuel tax.

Since the local elections in May the council has been "hung" with the Tories taking control with Lib-Dem support. Although the largest single party, Labour has refused to take leadership positions on any council committee and has instead embarked on a "guerrilla" strategy. By holding back detailed and uncontroversial proposals until this weeks meeting of  the full council they were able to successfully test the Lib-Dems assertion of independence from any "secret pact" with the Tories.

Whether this will continue remains to be seen, but veteran Labour councillor Barry Thorne admitted "We're now working under a new system. Being an "old Labour" man myself, I find it somewhat uncomfortable."

Albion Street on track to replace Abbey Road

Bradford's premier 1 in 12 Club is now well on the way to opening its own Recording Studio and band Practice Room.

Phase 1 - the Practice Room - is now open for business and members can rehearse under perfect acoustic conditions without annoying the neighbours for only £3 an hour.

Club member Stick said:

"Bands used to practice in the gig room which is far from ideal acoustically. We also used to get a lot of complaints from adjoining businesses through the day."

The project began a year ago when one member decided that there was space in the Club cellar that could be better utilised.

"We always wanted a recording studio and then we realised - hey, this is the 1 in 12 Club, we can do it ourselves."

So, in the true DIY ethos of the Club, the "Practice room collective" was born.

See: Full story
Check out the Practice Room progress
See also: The 1 in 12 Club site

City hosts major "Community Safety" conference

Around 100 delegates from across the country gathered in Bradford on Thursday to learn about the district's "Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy", which recently led to the council being awarded "Beacon Status" by the government.

Police officers, Council officials, CCTV operators and Town Centre managers attended a number of workshops covering themes on street prostitution, retail crime, drink and drugs, young people and CCTV.

A presentation on "the fear of crime" in Little Germany focussed on the planned introduction of CCTV cameras and brought critical questioning from the delegates:

• Why had a key survey brought responses from just 14 residents?
• Why had CCTV been identified as a preferred solution before the survey was undertaken?
• Why were the needs of businesses prioritised, especially as they were generally unwilling to help pay?
• Why were the major concerns identified - the lack of police patrols - ignored?

One delegate pointed out that CCTV was a favoured solution because the government was pumping large amounts of public money into it:

"The government are saying 'here's the money, now go find a problem'".

Another workshop was told that Bradford Council's new district-wide 100-camera system is expected to come online in March next year. The new high-tech control centre in Britannia House will use the latest digital computer technology.

This raised concerns on the likely impact of the Data Protection Act, especially as it is anticipated that "automatic image recognition" software will be added in the near future to track "known faces" and enforce city-wide exclusion orders. Bradford Council has yet to register it's CCTV systems, as currently required.

CCTV consultants "Petard International" were on hand to demonstrate their computer control system COBYT, and their new mobile "rapid deployment" CCTV systems which Council officers are anxious to introduce into the district.

Many delegates said they'd found the conference useful and further gatherings later this year are planned.

See: Petards International website
See also: Selected findings of Little Germany Security Questionnaire
See also: Data Protection Registrar

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