A NEW partnership will give the people of Bradford more say about vital health matters, according the Council leader.

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe has welcomed the new Memorandum of Understanding for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate

Health and Care Partnership. The group is made up of organisations across West Yorkshire, including councils and NHS trusts, and the memorandum was created to formalise the commitment of the groups involved to improve the health of the 2.6 million people who live in the area.

At a meeting of the Bradford and Airedale Health and Wellbeing Board yesterday, members heard that the recently established partnership has already attracted £12.6m in funding to transform cancer diagnostics in West Yorkshire.

Cllr Hinchcliffe told the meeting: "It can get frustrating as a local authority that we are not always at the table when decisions are made. It is important that elected members, who are voted by the public, get to have a say on these issues. I welcome that we will have greater oversight and be in a better place to shape decisions.

"It will hopefully allow us to get more money to spend here in Bradford to improve the health of our residents."