May 1998

Parent Power (23/5/98)

Police violence mars peaceful street party (16/5/98)

May Day magic (1/5/98)

City centre scams: J C Decuax "street furniture" (1/5/98)

Parent Power

Five hundred children, parents and teachers marched through the city centre on Saturday in a vocal and spectacular display of opposition to Bradford Council's School Review and the proposed closure of 70 schools.

The vast majority of the schools affected were represented in the impressive turnout and passers by were left in no doubt as to the strength of feeling as kids chanted and waved placards vowing to "Save our Schools".

Elvira Grisag, Chair of Governors at Bolton Woods Middle School and one of the march organisers, told KDIS how pleased she was about the turnout: "Its fantastic and the support from the parents and children is wonderful. Its parent power, that's what its all about, parent power!!"

The march brought to a head months of frustration and anger as an inadequate consultation process has been compounded by the insensitive actions of Bradford Council and individual councillors.

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Police violence mars peaceful street party

As the worlds leaders gather in Birmingham today for the G8 summit, across the world "Reclaim the Streets" actions are taking place. In over 30 countries around the globe, mass parties in the midst of busy roads will highlight the environmental campaign to reclaim streets from cars for people.

But a peaceful warm-up event in Leeds last Saturday revealed an apparent police determination to stop the protests.

Over 300 people took to the streets as part of the second Leeds "Reclaim the Streets" action. For 4 hours Albion Street, off the Headrow, was awash with colour and sound as young and old danced to the sound systems and kids played on the bouncy castle. This, however, was in complete contrast to the frightening scenes of police violence that had preceded the event.

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May Day Magic

 As the distant rhythmic crunch of drums became audible, the Square itself became still and silent with anticipation. Then it got louder. Then it got louder still.

The echo from the buildings amplified it until thousands of paper clips and staples did a rhythmic dance on a thousand desks. They didn't want to be stuck in an office, they wanted to be out enjoying themselves on MAY DAY.

The noise was Bradford's 1 in 12 Club drummers leading the Reclaim May Day marchers into Centenary Square for an afternoon of music and dance- salsa style.

May Day Reviews

City Centre Scams: J C Decaux "street furniture"

In one of the most unbelievable deals brokered by the City Centre Management team, 80 pieces of J C Decaux "street furniture" were installed in Bradford over the last 2 years, bringing a fortune to the French company and not one penny to Bradford rate payers.

The "street furniture" consists of advertising hoardings and columns, with all the revenue from the advertising going straight to Decaux.

The only benefit to the public are an occasional "seat" at the foot of some of the advertising columns, and a few street maps displayed on some of Decaux sites free of charge. In return Decaux have been guaranteed an "on street" advertising monopoly for at least 20 years - previous advertisers had their contracts "terminated" by the council to ensure this. 2 J C Decaux "advertisement supported" pay "superloos" were also installed at public expense - but proved to be a disaster and had to be removed.

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