December 199720 December 1997
![[traffic]](road.jpg)
Toxic car emissions will increase by 9% in Bingley if the "Relief Road" is built, a new study by KDIS Online shows.
Nitrogen Dioxide levels will double in the playground of Bingley C of E First School to 46 ppb - approaching the National Air Quality Strategy Standard limit for background NO2 levels. In reality this level is likely to be higher, as the study ignores traffic on Park Road which runs past the school.
Levels along Bingley Main Street will drop by 17% if the traffic there falls to half its current level, as forecast. But overall traffic flow through Bingley will almost double if the new road is built.
The KDIS study was commissioned in response to a similar though more restricted study produced by Bradford Councils Specialist Pollution Team last month to support the Councils case for the new road. It was ordered by MP Chris Leslie.
19 December, 1997
![[Cllr Ralph Berry]](berry.gif)
Bradford Council reprieved some of the major victims of its Voluntary Sector cuts package today, drawing the sting to some extent from the high pressure campaign mounted by the community groups. Amongst those with their grants restored were Bradford Law Centre, Gingerbread, Keighley Kiddicare and the Manningham Project.
118 groups appealed to the Councils Review procedure when £1.5 was cut from the budgets of existing groups last month. The Council reinstated the grants of 14 groups, totalling £645,000, and promised to try and fit some other groups into different budgets, such as its Youth & Community division.
Community Development Committee chair Ralph Berry insisted that the original scoring system had been fair and that individual councillors should not be blamed.
However, over 100 community groups, including many local community centres, remain in limbo and campaigners have vowed to continue fighting the cuts.
A meeting of the Voluntary Sector Forum will be held on Monday, January 5th at 2.00pm at the offices of the Race Equality Council.
December 12, 1997
Bradford councils Unitary Development Plan - the district wide blueprint for future planning applications - was approved this week amidst mounting controversy.
Opposition councillors called the process "deeply flawed" and pledged continuing support to the several community Action groups who have vowed to take their fight against the Plan to the High Court
The UDP plan, which has been 6 years in preparation, designates all land throughout the district into categories ranging from protected "green belt" to "proposed housing site". A change from agricultural land to development land can see land values rocket from £2000 an acre to £150,000 or more, making some land owners millionaires overnight.
December 4, 1997
![[Microwave CCTV]](camera.gif)
Bradford Councils promise to hold a "comprehensive review" of its CCTV systems has been branded "a sham".
The Council is to go ahead with the installation of 5 spy-cameras in Shipley centre early next year, despite a public promise to conduct a "comprehensive review" of its existing CCTV schemes first. The so-called "review" is not due to start until next January.
Mike Quiggin, secretary of Bradford TUC said: "We were led to understand that the review would take place before any more cameras went up. We've been seeking a proper evaluation of the existing schemes since February because there are real doubts as to their effectiveness as well as concerns about privacy. The new Plan stated clearly that the council would only "Install and upgrade CCTV cameras in locations where it is proved to be effective". How can they know if there has been no evaluation?"
December 2, 1997
![[May day, Bradford, 1997]](mayday.jpg)
Plans are afoot to reclaim May Day for the second year in a row in 1998. An open meeting next month will launch plans for the event and invite participation and ideas from all sections of the local community.
Throughout the world May Day is celebrated as a peoples holiday on May 1st. In Britain it has been shuffled off onto the nearest Monday to coincide with a bank holiday. The plot to reclaim the true meaning of May Day in Bradford began when a group of 43 members of the 1 in 12 Club went to Barcelona (Spain) in 1996 to join in the celebrations there. So inspired were they by the sense of community strength and solidarity, the following year they organised a five day festival around May Day in Bradford.
Events included "The Haymarket Incident" - a play about the first May Day written and performed by local amateurs for 3 days to a packed Theatre in the Mill; a radical bookfair; a 5-day series of public meetings and discussions; a month long film festival; a walk retracing the machine-wrecking Bradford Luddites; a series of gigs and a weekend national football tournament. May Day itself saw a parade through a sunny Thursday lunchtime city, ending in a full afternoon of free music in Centenary Square, rounded off with a massive benefit gig with recent chart-toppers Chumbawamba. Hundreds of pounds were collected for the Liverpool Dockers throughout the day.
And all this was achieved without a penny of public funding.
May Day 1998 is expected to be even better.
The open meeting will be held in the city centre offices of Bradford CVS on Weds, 28 January at 7.30 pm. Contact the 1 in 12 Club (734160) for further details.
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