12:08pm Wednesday 5th November 2008
By Jim Greenhalf
I can't have been the only soul in Bradford who watched the last episode of Jamie Oliver's campaigning Ministry of Food programme on Channel 4.
At least one other person may have been watching, Councillor Kris Hopkins, the leader of Bradford Council. Why? Because he appeared on it, twice, looking a bit shy and bashful I thought. It must have been a culture shock, spending time with a dynamic personality intent on getting good things done - not many of them in Councillor Hopkins' empire.
The programme culminated in a big open-air cook-in in Rotherham, this took place at the end of rainy August. At this event civic figures and politicians from Hull, York, Rotherham and Bradford - there may have been others - were invited to support the idea of Ministry of Food shops in their towns and cities. Accessible places where the public could come in and learn how to cook simple but nourishing meals.
Rotherham said yes and backed up their pledge with £250,000 to run the scheme. York and Hull gave the nod too. Yes, and what did Bradford say? Nothing. Even though obeisity is an endemic problem, so we are told, Bradford Council, in the shape of its leader, apparently did not think Mr Oliver's scheme worth while.
Perhaps a quarter of a million quid was not justifiable in these tough economic times.Why else would Bradford be replacing paving stones at the top of Broadway with square yards of ugly black bitumen, if not to economise?
That being the case, how can lashing out hundreds of thousands of pounds for more useless managerial bureaucrats be justified?
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/trade_directory/