THE Leader of Bradford Council is calling for “summits” in town and city centres in the district to discuss how to better tackle anti-social behaviour and violence.

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe will raise a motion at a full Council meeting on Tuesday calling for action to make sure centres are places people can visit and work “comfortably and without fear.”

The motion will refer to an incident in City Park last month where a group of teens attacked a 15-year-old kicking him in the head. The incident was filmed by an onlooker and uploaded online, making national news.

Three people have been arrested over the incident and a police investigation is ongoing.

A motion being put forward by Cllr Hinchcliffe says: “We condemn mindless violence wherever it happens but it is particularly distressing when we see it happening in our city and town centres.

“These are familiar places we all own and where we feel at home. No one, whoever they are, has the right to inhibit others from using that space comfortably and without fear. Our city and town centres belong to all of us, not to a mindless few.

We must act quickly to make sure that in the Bradford District our young people are diverted from such dangerous activity.”

The motion also criticises government cuts to police and Council services.

As well as demanding an increase in police funding, the motion will call for;

- parents and carers to partner with the Council and other public agencies in preventing their children from being involved in violent incidents.

- town centre summit meetings to be held with the Business Improvement Districts and local agencies to refresh plans in place to tackle anti-social behaviour

- the youth service to engage more extensively in town centres with young people

- review the offer being provided by the Youth Offending Team to see what more can be done to turn young people away from crime.

As well as the City Park incident, the past 12 months has seen numerous incidents of anti social behaviour across the district, including in inner city areas around Bonfire Night and in Ilkley over Summer.

Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “I welcome Bradford Council’s motion which comes at a particularly relevant time.

“Ensuring that our communities are safe is the core vision of my Police and Crime Plan and in order to achieve this it’s crucial that the police and partners, such as the Council work closely together.

"Our police do an extremely important job in protecting our communities, preventing crime and carrying out robust enforcement against offenders. However it is ultimately through a whole-system approach with initiatives aimed at early intervention and prevention that will enable us to most effectively stop incidents like the one seen in City Park from taking place, as well as tackling knife crime and serious violence as a whole.

“There are already a number of projects on-going in Bradford to help tackle these issues including ones funded through the Home Office Early Intervention Youth Fund and my Safer Communities Fund which I have helped co-ordinate.

“The next round of my Safer Communities Fund will be in part focusing on projects looking to provide intervention and prevention including targeted youth diversionary programmes which support the most vulnerable or those at risk of becoming perpetrators of crime.

“The new policing budget, which I set in February, allows for an additional 264 officers and specialist staff recruited into protecting local communities, with Police Community Support Officer numbers also being maintained over the next 12 months.

"However, more needs to be done by the Government to ensure sustained support and funding for our policing, youth services and wider prevention services and I will of course continue to lobby and speak directly with the Home Secretary and Government about a better deal for Policing and community safety generally."