Saturday 28 February 2009

Did we really expect anything more?

"Construction work on Bradford’s £320 million shopping centre will definitely not start this year, its owner has revealed. "

Yep, that huge crater in the centre of our city is DEFINATELY NOT going to be worked on this year according to the T&A and Westfield.

I've lost count about how many years its been since the bulldozers came in, i think I've been to university (with a year out) in the time it's taken to get things moving. (and in fact i think it maybe longer!)

If the Council had not been so incompetent with the building contracts, we would have had this shopping up and running well before the recession which would have come as a relief to everyone and providing much needed jobs for the area, AND actually bringing in new businesses.

As it says in the report, it is no surprise that Westfield are not going to crack on with the expensive building work, especially with the recession worsening.

But what can the Council do to bring businesses back to Bradford to provide jobs? It would be UKIPs policy to return control of business rates to local councils, handing back some of the power from central government, which would allow us to control direct taxation on businesses.

Bradford is going to close down unless we get new businesses to move in, but there is little the council can do to encourage this. Bradford is losing custom to Leeds and Halifax and winning it back is going to be hard, especially in a recession.

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Bradford Tory Tax Rises Again

The T&A have reported that the Tories have reached a deal in which they can raises tax again this year.

In a deal struck with the Lib Dems and Greens the rise will be 2.5%

At a time when its harder to pay the bills, when food prices are going up, when we need people to start buying again to kick start the economy, the Tories decide to increase taxes again.

What have we seen over the past year with our taxes?

Local swimming pools under threat
Post Offices Closing
Poor road maintenance/patchy gritting
The multi-million pound crater on Broadway
The proposed demolition of the iconic Odeon

UKIP is the only local party that would vote against any further rises in Council Tax, expose the waste of the region and council, and pump more funding into frontline services.

Branch chairman on local Radio

Tune in to hear Branch Chairman and MEP Candidate for Yorkshire Jason Smith on BCB Radio Friday 27th February.

The discussion will be the 57th anniversary of the abolition of wartime identity cards and other No2ID business.


Tune into 106.6 fm at 11:45am on Friday.

Monday 23 February 2009

Labour to Privatise Royal Mail

A report by the BBC has highlighted the looming vote on further privatization of Royal Mail.

Not only has Labour adopted the rules that have allowed foreign and private companies cherry pick the profitable parts of the postal service from Royal Mail, leaving it unable to sustain the service and Post office network.

Not only have Labour voted to continue the Post Office closure programme despite a wide-spread public backlash.

Not only has Labour withdrawn services from the Post Office and is unable to help sustain the network due to "State Aid" rules.

Now Labour wishes to sell off more public assets to the private sector. 30% of Royal Mail will be sold off to the Dutch firm TNT. No doubt the local Bradford Labour MPs will enthusiastially vote in favour of further privatization of what used to be a sustainable and profit making service.

Labour can't be trusted with our vital public services and will continue to sell out the country and our public services for a quick buck.

UKIP Bradford will be watching how our local MPs vote and make sure it is known by the public.
Click HERE to find out more about how Labour is destroying our Royal Mail and Post Offices.

Sunday 8 February 2009

More Job losses, More loss of Royal Mail?

Well the ongoing complaint continues, Tory Council Tax goes up, Bradford services are cut.

In this case, the Bradford Royal Mail sorting office is under real threat of closure. 700 jobs are on the line. The work maybe transferred to Leeds, but it is a testament to the Tory led decline in Bradford, that services and vitality of the city declines a big step each year.

We need jobs in recession, and putting more workers on the dole doesn’t help anyone, these kinds of public service jobs need to be safeguarded, because if we wait for a new shopping centre to be built or new businesses to move in to provide jobs, we'll be waiting a long time!

Of course before 1997, Royal Mail was an efficient and profit making service, in which the profitable parts of the service (e.g. business mail) helped pay for the unprofitable parts (e.g. Post Offices)

But then Labour got their hands on it, forced privatisation by opening the service up to competition, which has meant Royal Mail is now in decline.

The EU Postal Directives allowed the private companies to cherry pick the business mail and profitable parts of the service, while Royal Mail was left supporting the unprofitable bits and rural routes.

The Bradford Labour MPs will cry foul no doubt, but do nothing, just as they did when they voted to continue the Post Office closure programme, and their parties support for the EU rules crippling Royal Mail and the part-privatisation of Royal Mail itself.

Full liberalisation of the postal service by the start of 2011 – There will be nothing left of Royal Mail to compete