Council fails to deal with alcohol abuse

4.04.35pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 8th Dec 2005

Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Jeanette Sunderland has revealed that a report from the Audit Commission released on 17th November has said that Bradford has little prospect of improving its performance in building a safe, stronger and more cohesive community.

She said

" The most worrying thing about this report is that it says repeatedly that the Council is failing to deal with the harm that alcohol causes.

The report says: ' the harm that alcohol causes has not been effectively addressed'

At a time when the Government has allowed pubs and clubs to serve alcohol until the small hours, it is appalling that the Council has not only fallen behind but in the judgement of the Audit Commission, has poor prospects for improvement.

The Commission also reported that progress has been slow in tackling domestic violence which is an area of crime often fuelled by alcohol.

The report says ' Progress has been slow in the priority area of tackling domestic violence'.

The report also highlights that out of the £9.5m budget, £6.2m is paid for from grants which may not continue. With only £3.3m paid for by the council, the programme cannot be sustained.

I have written to the chair of the Safer and Stronger Communities Improvement Committee asking him to put this report on the agenda at the earliest possible opportunity so that councillors can see these important weaknesses for themselves and make some decisions about how to improve the service."