This article is taken from July’s edition of The Trumpit. Even if you have no interest in sport, it illustrates how a local council – in this case Bradford – can distribute precious funding based on politics over and above the wider good. Having chased them for a sensible response their silence speaks volumes. Truth hurts?
Our cash-strapped Council is about to dole out millions which should make every rate payer shudder; this time the “beneficiary” is sport, a subject they have been eternally clueless about. It’s slavish PR machine – the Telegraph & Argus (T&A) – announced June 4th that “a £15m shake up of Bradford’s playing fields will see major improvements to sites across the district”. Actually, mostly where people vote for the ruling party if the truth ever mattered. The Bradford District 2019 Playing Pitch Strategy – see here – you can find your club from page 63-103 depending on your area – is the guiding document. It was commissioned by the same Department of Place – soon to be renamed Department of Chaos – that turned the Bingley Music Festival from profit to a huge loss resulting in its cancellation. The document is a monster 125 pages; imagine the horror of councillors rolling up for the usual free biscuits to be confronted with this? “Nod it through, there’s a good one!”
Produced by consultants so beloved of our Council, there are glaring inaccuracies which would suggest any reliance on the overall findings to be a waste of money. Bear in mind participation levels in most grassroots sports are in decline. Take this re cricket:…worthy of note that the high levels of future demand expressed for cricket provision in Bradford is a result of high levels of club aspiration to develop new teams in the future. Where do they get this rubbish from? Claims are also made for football: Shortfalls are predominately as a result of overplayed pitches, particularly adult pitches. How can that be when the main Sunday league has halved in a decade? Gone are the days when most pitches were mud baths come Christmas. How about Idle CC, no longer a cricket club? A good quality square consisting of four grass wickets. The site is available for community use but is currently unused. Had they bothered to check they might have noticed this was now a football pitch. The report is riddled with so many inaccuracies it makes one question who actually verified it let alone then recommended spending £15m.
Demonstrating our sports mad public’s desire for more millions to flow down a vote chasing drain, a T&A survey showed resounding support of 78% from a total number of respondents of…9. What should be a matter of scrutiny is the choice of Myra Shay in BD3 as a major recipient. Helpfully, Executive member Cllr Imran Khan explained: “We’ve been listening to the concerns of people in BD3 around access to first class sports facilities that will encourage local people to get more active.” Liberal Democrat Councillor Riaz Ahmed, Bradford Moor ward, which will also benefit said: “Any improvements are welcome. You look at inner city areas, and there is a huge disparity in the quality of sports facilities.” Well you won’t find it much different anywhere else in Bradford but who cares about that?
In April 2018 I revealed in my blog The PC Money Tree that back in 2006 millions had been spent at Myra Shay including £60k alone for a cricket square which is staggering in itself. An amount of this scale would normally assure First Class standard wickets yet this was for public open space. I obtained this from Cllr Sunderland (Idle & Thackley) who was involved at the time through a body called Regen 2000. She said “…cannot confirm the amount on the cricket pitch itself…however the whole project was in the order of £2.5m…included 5 football pitches, track and a cricket pitch…plus changing rooms etc. It was a joint project with the Council. Apart from the cricket pitch I’d say it was money well spent on sports pitches.” If it was money well spent then how come it needs spending again springs to mind as somewhat obvious?
Across the road millions were also spent on the Karmand Centre, a cricket ground that wanted for nothing as most in the district’s clubs struggled to keep afloat and yet not one junior team is based there. To suggest the provision of sports facilities in Bradford is a postcode lottery based on political expediency would not be far from the truth. Consider too the district’s swimming pools with closure earmarked for outlying pools in Bingley and Queensbury whilst a brand new one will be built in the Toller ward; funny that one so close to existing pools in Eccleshill and Shipley? To appease those in the less sympathetic areas – at least towards the ruling Labour cabal – the T&A revealed that there will be “£3,130,000 invested in creating five “local multi-sports hub sites” – one in each of Bradford’s constituencies.” The way our Council spend money this will be a drop in the ocean given the planned Wyke sports village is expected to cost £5,523,000, against an initial estimate of £2.5m. Despite this, we are still expected to believe that “…up and running the site is predicted to generate a surplus of over £80,000 a year.”
Finally, regarding the three areas that will most benefit from this rainfall of cash to satisfy a report with more holes than a council football pitch, of the six wards, 15 out of the 18 councillors belong to the ruling party. By sheer coincidence, it happens that Executive member – Cllr Sarah Ferriby – will see her ward benefit the most. Had Hapless Hinchcliffe’s King George V plan come through – abandoned after spending nearly ninety-grand on consultants – it would have been corks popping all round with five of the six executive members being beneficiaries of major projects as far as their wards were concerned – nice! Is this mere coincidence or does it sum up local government? Is this why most of us consider them self-serving, clueless buffoons splashing out millions of our money for pet projects to soothe their local populace? No wonder many areas of this once great city feel marginalised.
FOOTNOTES
1 – I challenged Cllr Hinchcliffe as to the merits of this plan. It took her ten days to write back to state simply what I already knew. Perhaps she is used to dealing with idiots or this is the modern way of politicians at all levels; duck, dive and avoid at all costs in the hope that the irritable questioner vanishes? That she has not got the integrity to answer my points says it all.
2 – I wrote to Bradford Council under the Freedom of Information Act to seek the cost of the external report that the Council’s spending spree is predicated on. The cost was £24,925; nice work if you can get it.
Remember this is your money.
3 – In this month’s Trumpit, Thackley AFC, the area’s premier football club, disclose in their monthly column that for the first time in the author’s memory, they will only be running only one senior team next season. This would tend to suggest even football has its issues with our coach potato population despite what Bradford Council suggest to the contrary.
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