FUNDING for Bradford's street cleansing service will not be cut as dramatically as originally planned.

Under budget proposals for 2019/20 that were first announced last year, Bradford Council had planned to cut funding to the service by £1 million, with 26 front line staff lost.

But today at a meeting of the Council's decision making Executive, members revealed they would be reigning in the extent of the controversial cuts.

In a last minute change to the budget, which will be finalised on Thursday, will see £500,000 put back into the service each year, with 20 staff not originally included in the coming year's budget.

Council bosses said the changes followed a public consultation, during which major concerns were raised about the street cleansing cuts.

They also announced a new push to tackle litter and fly tipping, which would see the Council take a more pro-active approach to dealing with dumping on unadopted and vacant land.

Cuts to the welfare advice service will also be mitigated under the amended budget - with £500,000 put back into the department's budget annually to meet "the rising demand for debt advice from families impacted by Universal Credit and benefit sanctions."

Officers accused of 'holding gun to Councillors' heads' over street cleaning cuts

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, executive for Healthy People and Places, said: "It is important for residents and businesses that people live in a clean environment.

"We are having a Great Bradford Spring Clean this year and are bringing in measures to improve our streets all year long and bringing in measures to improve our streets all year round.

"Residents are telling us that they are tired of people dumping and flytipping on waste land near them. This is land which no-one owns therefore noone takes responsibility for. The Council cleans up its own land and does it quickly and efficiently. This additional investment means that from April we will start doing this on waste land as well.

"We are determined to clear the flytipping blights in our communities.

"The district has many back streets in built up areas. These can get neglected and untidy. We're going to have an ongoing programme to blitz these back streets, working with communities to get them clean and keep them clean.

"Finally residents are clearly telling us that takeway businesses create litter with empty cartons and waste paper where they are located. It's in businesses best interests as well as residents to make sure they are located in a tidy and clean street so we're going to work with them to be part of the Big Bradford Clean Up."

Councillor Mike Pollard (Cons, Baildon) was at the Executive meeting and will be presenting the Conservative’s alternate budget at Thursday’s meeting. He said: “Our proposed budget would reverse in full the £1 million cut. It is good to see the controlling group is going some way to mitigating the cuts."