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Scrutiny of Bradford Council's Carbon Management - report launched
The report of the Environment and Waste Management Improvement Committee 'Scrutiny of Bradford Council’s Carbon Management' was launched at an event in City Hall on Tuesday 8 December 2009 to coincide with the start of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. The keynote speaker was Tom Cumberlege, Public Sector Manager at the Carbon Trust. The launch was attended by Councillors, council officers and representatives of partner organisations.
The scrutiny was carried out by the Committee’s Carbon Management Link Member and adopted by the Committee on 24 November 2009. It makes 28 recommendations for action by the Council. The report and recommendations have been referred to the Council’s Executive Committee.
For more information, please see the following documents:
For more information, please contact Caroline Coombes on:
Tel. 01274 432313
E. caroline.coombes@bradford.gov.uk
Launch of the Scrutiny into “Alcohol as a Health Issue”
On Friday 3 October the Council’s Health Improvement Committee launched their latest report.
The event marked the end of almost a year’s work by the working group looking into all aspects of “alcohol as a health issue”.
The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress toasted the report with apple juice and the audience were addressed by a number of those responsible for producing the report.
Tim Gilling, Health Scrutiny Programme Manager for the Centre for Public Scrutiny praised the report. He noted Bradford’s previous ground-breaking scrutiny into obesity and spoke of the importance of scrutiny for local democracy and improving services.
The scrutiny came about because of the committee’s concerns about the rise of “binge-drinking” and alcohol misuse nationally. They decided that it was important to see what was happening in Bradford and established a working group to look into the effects of alcohol on the health of people in the district.
They held a series of six hearings and received evidence from a large number of witnesses, included health professionals, council officers and a supermarket as well as people with personal experience of the effects of alcohol abuse.
After lengthy discussions the working group came up with a series of 18 recommendations. Many of these were directed at the Council and its partners but others were addressed to the Government, major retailers, the police and licensed premises.
They included:
- the creation of a web and telephone based information service to provide information on the harmful effects of alcohol and the availability of help
- a call to all licensed premises in the Bradford district to provide reasonably priced low alcohol drinks and soft drinks
- clearer unit labelling on all alcoholic drinks bottles
- a demand to the Government to tax alcohol by strength
- improved training for doctors and other health professionals
The report will be made available to the public through local libraries and health centres and is also available on the Council’s website through the link below.
View information on:
See the full report here
Download more pictures of the Alcohol Scrutiny Launch event here
For more information please contact: Nicola Ayres on
Tel: 01274 433995,
Email: nicola.ayres@bradford.gov.uk
Launch of the Skills Report
In July 2008 the Regeneration and Economy Improvement Committee completed a piece of work on skills. The report, “Creating a Skilled Workforce” followed on from an earlier piece of work the Committee were involved with on the subject of worklessness.
The report was launched at an event held on Tuesday 2 September 2008, which saw Bradford Council make a public commitment to investing in the skills of its own workforce.
The report makes 18 recommendations on the work needed to raise the skill levels of the population to meet the future needs of the district's employers and to meet national standards.
The Council is also following up a recommendation to sign the Skills Pledge - a public commitment by the Council to enable all employees develop basic skills, such as literacy and numeracy. This was signed at the event by Council Leader Kris Hopkins.
It means that any Council employee who has, for one reason or another, not had the chance to gain basic qualifications will be able to work towards the minimum of a Level 2 NVQ (National Vocational Qualification), the equivalent of five good GCSEs.
Signing the pledge will also give the Council more help and support from the Government through access to free training and a Learning and Skills Council (LSC) advisor.
Download the report “Creating a Skilled Workforce”
See more pictures of the event here
For more information please contact: Licia Woodhead on:
Tel: 01274 432119,
Email: licia.woodhead@bradford.gov.uk
Launch of Regeneration and Climate Change Report
The 4th of June 2008 saw the launch of the Environment and Waste Management Improvement Committee’s first report on climate change which focussed on the impact of regeneration in the district.
Representatives from key agencies such as InCommunities formerly known as Bradford Community Housing Trust (BCHT), Bradford and Airedale tPCT and environmental voluntary organisations joined members of the Committee, councillors from all parties and council officers to hear Bradford Council Chief Executive Tony Reeves, and Bradford Centre Regeneration’s Nick Ackroyd welcome the report and comment on some of the challenges ahead.
Left to right: Nick Ackroyd of Bradford Centre Regeneration, Cllr Ghazanfer Khaliq, Chair of the Environment & Waste Management Improvement Committee and Tony Reeves, Chief Executive of Bradford Council
Download more pictures of the event here
For more information please contact: Caroline Coombes on
Tel: 01274 43 2313,
Email: caroline.coombes@bradford.gov.uk
