Send spending deficit warning, chlorinated chicken “beef”, shorter library hours, £150K officer salaries, draft green plan ...
The Ilkley Journal roundup 🗞️
Bradford Council Send spending “expected to go into deficit” this year
Bradford Council is likely to see an £18 million surplus in special educational needs and disability (Send) spending go into a £14 million deficit in 2025–26, the Guardian has revealed.
But they’re not alone. Other councils are also expected to experience Send deficits in the millions, which will amount to an overspend of over £2 billion over the course of the next year.
“The spiralling debts were kept off council books by Tory ministers using an accounting fix called a ‘statutory override’ but this ends on 31 March 2026, when the debt returns to town hall balance sheets,” the Guardian explained.
“Ministers must now decide whether to clear the debt or extend the override until the deficits can be cleared safely.”
Kate Foale, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Spokesperson for the County Councils Network and a Nottinghamshire County Council councillor, said that there is the very real potential for “financial catastrophe for local councils” if these deficits are added to their budget books.
She warned:
“If that happens, half of England’s largest county and unitary councils will be insolvent overnight. And virtually every upper-tier council across the rest of England will tell you that the prospect of having to address and pay down these deficits would risk their financial sustainability.”
Bradford Council says that it is “generally poorly funded” and that because of funding cuts since 2010/11, it has been “disproportionately affected”.
It is one of 30 councils receiving exceptional financial support for 2025-26, with £127.1 million earmarked for the council.
Salaries for 8 senior officers at Bradford Council in 2023-24 total over £1 million
Bradford Council paid eight senior officers a total of £1,065,527 in salaries for 2023-24, according to new research from the Taxpayers’ Alliance.
The highest salaries went to Joanne Hyde, strategic director of corporate resources, and Iain MacBeath, strategic director of adult social care and health (formerly health and wellbeing). They respectively received £158,342 for 2023-24.
Prior to joining Bradford Council in 2018, Hyde was corporate director of resources at Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council. MacBeath’s previous role, as director of adult care services, was at Hertfordshire County Council, which he left in 2020.
Two others at Bradford Council were found to be on more than £150,000 (that’s four officers out of a record total of 1,092 council officers nationally receiving a salary over that amount).
They included Marium Haque, strategic director of children's services, and David Shepherd, strategic director of place.
Haque has been in the role since 2021. Shepherd, who was formerly director of trade and investment at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, joined Bradford Council in 2022.
“It’s a record-breaking year in many respects for taxpayers as the country hurtles towards a record tax burden, all while the public sector continues to feather its nest,” said John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance.
“As our latest town hall rich list demonstrates, the number of council staff with six-figure remuneration packages has surged at the same time that services are being slashed and council tax is being hiked above inflation.
“Local residents can look up their own authority in our list and judge the quality of services and their council tax bill against the pay packets of their council bosses.”
In an opinion piece for LBC, Jonathan Werran, chief executive of not-for-profit think tank Localis, said that news of such “municipal largesse” was hard to justify at a time when people are often paying more for effectively fewer services.
He asked:
“Why, for instance, does Bromley Council have eight directors on its books on more than £200,000 a year, including pensions and other benefits – each earning more than the prime minister’s salary?”
Ilkley officially recognised as a coach-friendly town
Ilkley now belongs to a small club of towns and cities in the UK who have been recognised for being tremendously friendly to long-distance buses – it has been officially recognised as a coach-friendly town.
It was awarded the status by the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), which recognised the West Yorkshire town’s commitment to hosting coaches that arrive here.
“We’re delighted to present Ilkley with Coach Friendly Status,” said Andrew McGuinness, CPT’s regional manager for the north of England. “With a great range of shops, restaurants, riverside walks and museums, the town is well-suited to welcome coach passengers and drivers.
“Ilkley’s charm and hospitality make it a natural choice for group travel, and its inclusion as part of Bradford – the UK City of Culture 2025 – adds even more appeal for visitors exploring the region’s cultural and heritage attractions.”
Other nearby destinations that have also been awarded Coach Friendly Status include Otley and, more specifically, RHS Harlow Carr Garden Centre in Harrogate.
According to the CPT, one of the benefits of coaches is their ability to deliver “high-spend visitors in a way which minimises congestion and reduces exhaust emissions”.
Shorter hours at Bradford District libraries “to deliver £175,000 in savings”
Bradford Council is confident that £175,000 will be saved through the reduction of library hours across the district , which have come into effect.
Speaking at a meeting of the executive on Wednesday, Christine May, head of libraries and archives at Bradford Council, said that this reduction, which amounts to an average reduction of six hours per council library, has been achieved “entirely through voluntary redundancies”.
The reduced hours have now come into effect across the district. The 10 council-run libraries are City, Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Eccleshill, Ilkley, Laisterdyke, Manningham, Wibsey and Wyke.
The final report of the Strategic Review of Bradford Libraries Service said that “Bradford Libraries are well-positioned to meet the needs of the district's diverse communities”.
“The current statutory library provision remains well distributed, ensuring all populated areas have access to essential library services,” it went on to say. “Libraries in areas of high need continue to play a vital role as community hubs, providing support for education, wellbeing and social connection.”
Bradford Council’s Draft Climate Action Plan to go out to consultation
Bradford Council’s Draft Climate Action Plan for 2025–28 will go out to public consultation this summer.
The consultation, which is expected to take place over 12 weeks starting in late May and concluding in late August, will be carried out in-person and digitally across the district.
“By demonstrating a real desire to engage with people no matter their economic or geographic background, or their protected characteristics, we are more likely to succeed in gaining community ownership of the plan and its actions,” the council stated.
It will also afford the local authority the opportunity to “educate our residents, businesses and employees about climate change, biodiversity loss and how they can play a crucial part in addressing both and moving towards a brighter, greener, more prosperous, healthy and resilient future”.
In her foreword to the plan, Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council, described it as providing a measurable pathway to net zero.
She highlighted some of the ways that the council has been at the heart of major sustainability projects in the district.
“Projects attracting investment include Bradford City Centre Walking and Cycling Improvements scheme, Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen, Mass Transit Tram System, Southern Gateway & Rail Station, Bradford’s Industrial Decarbonisation Prospectus, and City Village,” Hinchcliffe explained.
Eight priority areas have been identified for helping the council achieve the goal of becoming net zero by 2038:
Transforming travel and transport
Increasing renewable energy and fuels
Decarbonising industry
Providing warmth and comfortable buildings
Enabling community climate action
Managing land and nature
Reducing consumption and waste
Bradford Council declared a climate emergency in 2019, the same year the UK passed a law that committed the country to a legally-binding target of achieving net zero by 2050.
“As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, it is right that the UK is the world’s first major economy to commit to completely end its contribution to climate change, but trying to shift the burden to developing nations through international carbon credits undermines that commitment,” Doug Parr, chief scientist and policy director at Greenpeace UK, said at the time.
“This type of offsetting has a history of failure and is not, according to the government’s climate advisers, cost-efficient.”
Robbie Moore takes on “Reform UK’s chlorinated chicken sell-out”
The Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley has described Reform UK’s “chicken sell-out” as a betrayal of UK farmers.
Robbie Moore was referencing recent comments made by the party’s leader Nigel Farage, who, when asked by Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether he would allow chlorinated chicken into the UK, said:
“I would allow consumers in America to buy our products and consumers here to buy their products, and provided we have the right labelling, that's good.”
Writing on Facebook, Moore went on to say that Brits are “proud” of the “world-class” welfare standards, which would be compromised by the introduction of “inadequate US imports”.
He added:
“And for those saying ‘salad is also chlorinated’ – the last time I checked, salad doesn’t have a pulse.
“And not all salads or vegetables are treated with this method. Chicken is chlorinated because of the lower standard of welfare and farming practices it conceals. I don’t want that in our country.”
Responding to his comments, Andrew Judson, Reform UK’s chairman for the Keighley and Ilkley constituency branch, said he thought this was an April Fool’s Day joke.
He said:
“We are not responsible for imported food or international trade agreements made by this government. This is a very small part of a needed trade agreement.
“Reform UK has and always will fully support our hard working farmers against the terrible treatment from the inconceivable decisions of this Labour government.”
Moore replied:
‘It’s literally what Nigel said, Andrew - he’d accept chlorinated chicken and thus trade away British farming to the USA. But after Rupert Lowe was kicked [out] of [the] Reform party for speaking the truth I understand why you might be reluctant to criticise Nigel.”
UK farming unions came together to say that there was no market in the UK for hormone-treated beef, chicken or pork “treated with antimicrobial washes”. They continued:
“Those ways of production were banned in the 80s and 90s for a reason. They don’t reflect our values and the farm-to-fork approach we are proud of in the UK, something we know the British people care deeply about.”