Most liked posts in thread: Odsal Redevelopment, Council Finances, Council Services & The Private Sector

One thing i will say regarding some of this nostalgia trip and fond memories, if you don't move forward you get left behind. There wasn't that much difference in the state of the respective city centres in Leeds and Bradford going back to the early 90s. All i'll say is now look at both.

 

For the Victoria quarter , i give you Swann arcade ,civic vandalism at its best

 

It's still a death trap down Great Horton Road when Cannon mills is open then again that can be said for many roads around Bradford, Leeds Road its like Santa Pod.

 

I’m 56.
My children’s great great grandchildren will still be reading reports of the potential Odsal development many many years from now.

 

The SL needs big teams like the Bulls. Their brand and reach is better than the small sides, and their academy is better than a lot of those in Super League even now and has churned out top class players who’ve played on the biggest stage.

Bulls did well last season and they’ve retained key players for next year and got rid of a supposed bad egg in Patton.

Hopefully they build on this year under the new coach who has just come in.

 

Time to let it go fella. All this negativity will do you no good. Don't be jealous of the good times we had, the trophies we won, the unbelievable away followings. Best 10 years of my life in a sporting sense, met some wonderful people, got to watch some of the greatest rugby league players in the world up close and personal, the challenge cup wins at Murrayfield and Cardiff, those never forget nights in Huddersfield beating Newcastle, Penrith and Wests Tigers in the world club challenge. Or the pitch invasion at the Don Valley after securing the title in 97. Oh, can't forget the countless great games against the Rhinos, over 24,000 at Odsal on a balmy summers night. Those special nights at Old Trafford under the lights, bringing the trophy home to Bradford in 2001,03 and 05. I could go on but don't want to cause you too much pain.

 

When I worked for the Council they had reserves of money which they must have used to fill the gaps. As you say massive increase in Children in Need and Children in Care. Nobody would listen to front line staff. Bradford Children’s Services at one time was the envy of most other cities. It had more experienced workers and had better outcomes but they refused to plan for the inevitable. They refused to pay social workers anymore so the Kirklees drain became a flood. It is very expensive paying agency staff. So here we are. Yes Government underfunding had its part to play. I felt great sadness when I read the report because a lot could and should have been avoided. I could go on but wrong place.

 

Was it because it was put into private hands…. RT ?

“This consequent focus on markets and privatisation has been the biggest change within children's social care. From 2011-19, there was a 42% increase in the number of children looked after in private for-profit care.”

Sadly there is the answer, if that’s what Councils of all ilks have to put up with , along with Adult elderly care. I was reading recently it’s around £4k a MONTH to place an elderly person into private hands and it’s councils and us taxpayers who have to fund it if the adult has no assets.

We digress.

 

This is a very good analysis of what has happened in Bradford Children’s service over the last 30 years or so. I landed in 1989. I was appalled when they decided to shut the residential units down and dispense with well trained residential staff. Not to mention the preventive work carried out in communities right across Bradford.

 

If you want standards and outcome’s to improve for young ppl, you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. I am sorry I was never asked about the wishy washy middle class view that all children benefit from being in a foster care facility. They do not, often the young ppl who I worked with were very badly damaged before coming into care, and you can’t just wish that away.
When you are working with statutory legislation as Children's services come under having a private fragmented service provider who operate as a business for profit model is wholly irresponsible in my view. We have not seen strong leadership at Government or Council level; grabbing hold of easy decisions to ‘if it saves money’ it’s ok. Who knew that private companies wouldn’t raise their prices once they knew they had Councils at their mercy? Nobody wants to touch this politically, so here we are in this complete and utter mess with children’s lives no better.

 

Spot on. But the right use the ‘efficiency’ myth to justify it, despite the legion of private sector disasters over the past decades. And Blair’s Labour government bought into the myth too.
It’s also driven by an ideological hatred of the public sector by many Tories, who still believe the Friedmanite myth that any money spent on government/public sector is dead money that the private sector could otherwise use to do things better. We’ve all seen how that’s played out. Track & trace in the pandemic is a classic example. Instead of building on the existing national network of expertise in every local authority, the Tories ignored that and tried to reinvent the wheel in the private sector. Result - billions in squandered public money, some very enriched shareholders and an utterly ineffective track & trace system. You couldn’t make it up.

 

Well said.....far too many examples....energy, buses, railways, education etc etc....

 

Absolutely. The thing that angers me is that care work should be a vocation and paid accordingly. It is not the sort of job you can expect anybody compelled by the Jobcentre to do on the minimum wage to be any good at. You end up with unsuitable people caring for the most vulnerable because homes are desperate for staff at the wages they pay.
My late mother who had dementia and was unable to speak had her wedding, engagement and eternity rings stolen from her fingers by someone supposed to be caring for her. In a home (down south) that charged £1400 a week.

 

It will be years , as a country , we manufacture mostly crap that nobody wants , and if they did we can’t export it with ease to our nearest market place.
It’s a shambles and frankly the country is stoney broke if you look at the numbers.

 

No it isn't, its the plain truth. I've followed the bulls all my life. They have nothing to bring to the table. Without money they have no potential at all. Investment makes the potential. And no one is investing in either the bulls or the pie in the sky fantasy world stadium idea of the idiotic Bradford council.

 

The daft thing is we should be championing a scheme that has the potential to bring jobs and new infrastrucutre to arguably the least invested area in the uk over the decades. Yet no one has any faith in any scheme led by the council after the failed schemes costing millions over the years. Heck, even the Odeon would have been pulled down if it wasn't for the efforts of the puiblic to stop it. Fact, we've had failed Odsal redevelopment schemes for as long as i can remember, 'Wembley of the North' and all that tripe. Lets face it, if we really want a stadium complex fit for the next generation of Bradfordians, then fill in Odsal, pull down Valley parade, buy up the land of the old post office buildings and the nearby land including Halfords and stick a 25/30,000 seater stadium on it. 5 minute walk into an alleged redeveloped city centre and the infrastructure of leisure outlets that will give you, which in turn allows for a great venue for other outside entertainment such as music concerts. Walking distance from new and existing hotels and two dead end train stations (unfortunately we will never have a through rail link).

 

There seems to be a big bias towards rugby league within Bradford council