A COMMUNITY is uniting to try to save an under-threat health service which had been tailor-made for it.

The Health on the Streets (HOTS) team was formed to bring health services right into the heart of the communities of Eccleshill, Ravenscliffe, Thorpe Edge, Thackley, Idle, Greengates and Fagley.

Based at Eccleshill Clinic, it takes health services to non-traditional settings like community centres, offering help with breastfeeding, support to stop smoking, weight management and midwifery services among other things.

But Bradford Council's ruling Labour group is planning to decommission the service, saying it want to "eliminate duplication".

Now, more than 500 people have signed a petition calling for an urgent re-think.

The petition was started by John Sheen, the manager of Thorpe Edge Community Project at the Rockwell Centre, Thorpe Edge.

He said the HOTS project was so exemplary, the Council should be looking to roll it out to other areas rather than decommission it.

He said: "We were shocked when the proposal came to light, because we feel that it is such a good model."

Mr Sheen said the Thorpe Edge Community Project had worked with the HOTS team on a number of projects, and that it was very much geared towards helping people to help themselves.

He said: "Without Health on the Streets, we would really struggle to reach some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of the community.

"They work on a partnership basis with organisations and voluntary groups like ourselves and it works really well."

Mr Sheen will be presenting the petition to a meeting of the full Council tomorrow where he will ask them to reconsider the plan.

Bradford Council is facing a £41 million funding gap for 2015/16.

Its Labour administration is proposing to decommission HOTS, saving £224,000, as part of a programme of cutbacks.

A Council spokesman said: "The service was originally commissioned over ten years ago and the health needs of residents and the services available to them has changed significantly in that time.

"District-wide services have now been developed and are working in Ravenscliffe, Thorpe Edge and Greengates to deliver school nursing, health visiting and midwifery, smoking cessation and sexual health.

"These are services which are also delivered by HOTS so there is duplication of effort.

"The local authority is also in the process of commissioning additional services to meet the health needs of vulnerable groups across the district, including the Ravenscliffe, Thorpe Edge and Greengates areas.

"The new budget proposals focus on more efficient commissioning that will eliminate duplication of effort and free up public health resources so we can provide the people of the whole district with better services and better value for money."

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