Upwards of £250,000 in Government funding will be spent in Bradford on tackling anti-social behaviour following the district's selection as a Respect Action Area.

Bradford is one of 40 such areas, as well as Leeds and Kirklees, which are being held up as having strong track records in dealing with nuisance behaviour and the ability to do more.

Government education bosses have also vowed to invest a further £6 million in parenting classes in these priority zones in the next financial year.

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe, the Under Secretary for Justice in the Home Office, was in Shipley yesterday for the launch of the status at the Council's Owlet Family Centre in Windhill.

Afterwards he told the Telegraph & Argus: "It's because there is a good background of partnership in Bradford, that the district has been picked for this additional finance.

"Bradford Council's own Respect Agenda has been evolving over a number of years. This is not just a one off and will take a number of years to develop. I think Bradford can show nationally how we can pull people together from difference communities and have an impact on community cohesion."

Tommy Hughes, Bradford Council's senior policy officer, said Bradford was already setting a good example in many of the key pledges the Respect Areas have signed up to.

These are:

  • Family Intervention Projects to tackle neighbours from hell', something Bradford is already setting up with £200,000 of Government funding. Twenty of the most troublesome families will be expected to sign good behaviour contracts.
  • More parenting classes for parents struggling with troublesome children. In November it was announced that Bradford had been chosen to benefit from a Government-funded supernanny' - to help develop parenting support.
  • Face the People sessions where the police, local authorities and others can be accountable to their local public - such as the many neighbourhood forums and five area committees already running in the district; keep up the relentless action to tackle anti-social behaviour by using the full range of tools and powers available; and using the Respect Housing Standard to prevent and deal with any problems in social housing.
  • Posters saying "Respect Bradford District" will go up on buses and billboards across the district next month.
  • The Government's Respect tsar' Louise Casey denied that the initiative was merely a gimmick. She said the 40 areas were selected on the basis of indexes such as deprivation, high levels of anti-social behaviour, truancy and school exclusion levels.

Miss Casey said: "This is no gimmick. This is a very serious business. It's about getting parents to be more in control in their own homes and keeping up the unrelenting drive to tackle anti-social behaviour and that is happening across the country."

She added that the action areas would then point the rest of the country "in the right direction" when it came to tackling anti-social behaviour.

"We want the 40 areas to show how we can take the programme forward and point people in the right direction as well as keeping up the unrelenting drive to tackle anti-social behaviour," she said.

"These are the areas that are doing parenting classes and family projects that tackle the really, really difficult people in our communities."

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "Communities know where the problems are - and they now know too how best to use new powers to tackle them."

Home Secretary, John Reid said: "A great deal of action is being taken across the country to tackle the scourge of anti-social behaviour. The new Respect Areas will take public accountability one step further, with regular statutory Face the People sessions where they will be scrutinised by their local community for the work they have done and have yet to do."

e-mail: jo.winrow@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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