The chief of what was previously Bradford’s biggest substance misuse project has backed the new company commissioned to run the district’s drugs and alcohol services.

Jon Royle, chief executive of The Bridge project, said charity CGL (Change, Grow, Live) was the best qualified organisation to lead such a major change programme, despite regrettable job losses.

He was speaking out after the Telegraph & Argus reported that consultations over potential job losses at Bradford’s newly-combined drugs and alcohol services, which employs more than 120 workers, were still ongoing.

The number of redundancies will not be known until those talks end on November 2.

The union UNISON has warned the situation “doesn’t look good” and pledged to continue to challenge CGL, which was awarded the commission by Bradford Council to run the dual services district-wide.

A CGL spokesman said the charity is assessing the priorities and needs of the service, and is committed to delivering the new contract in Bradford making sure it is effective and easily accessible for service users.

Mr Royle said this week: “Substance misuse in common with other Council-funded services has received budget cuts and regrettably there will be job losses as a consequence. Our priority during this transition period is to support our staff and service users to the best of our ability.

“Until now, Bridge has been the largest local provider of substance misuse services and we have a proud history of over 30 years serving the people of Bradford. In deciding to bid for this contract, we have chosen to work exclusively with CGL as based on our expert knowledge of the sector we believe they are the best qualified organisation to lead such a major change programme.”

And he added: “We are currently working with our new partners to transform the system in line with the vision towards a more streamlined recovery focussed service and are very hopeful that in the long term, this will mean better outcomes for people experiencing drug and alcohol problems and better value for money for the tax payer.”

A Bradford Council spokesman said the new contract came about as a result of a full review in 2015 which recommended the Council and local Clinical Commissioning Groups commission a single, integrated service to meet the changing landscape of substance misuse, rather than run 14 separate services which could make it difficult for service users to get to the right service.

The spokesman said: “One reason for commissioning a single service was to remove duplication.”