A COUNCILLOR says driving standards in Bradford have declined to the point where he has seen people behind the wheel with balloons in their mouths.

Councillor Nazam Azam (Lab, City) was discussing the worsening situation on Bradford’s roads when he made the shocking claim.

Balloons are often used by people inhaling nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas or “hippie crack.”

Use of the drug, which slows down brain and body responses, has risen in recent years, and gas containers are an increasingly common sight in car parks or on roadsides.

Cllr Azam is chair of Bradford Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee, and has a very personal tie to the tragedy that danger driving can cause.

In September 2020 his father, Mohammed Azam, was hit by a speeding driver while walking on Horton Park Avenue.

He was flung into the air and left paralysed from the waist down.

In August the 25-year-old BMW driver was jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

On Thursday members of the Scrutiny Committee were discussing the Council’s full year performance report – a document that details how Bradford Council is performing in a number of different categories.

Although performance has improved in 24 of the 39 measures over the past year, the report finds that the number of people killed or seriously injured on Bradford’s roads is “worsening.”

Cllr Azam pointed out that despite numerous campaigns by the Council and police, danger driving was still a major problem in Bradford.

He said: ““Dangerous driving is worsening, not improving. This is despite campaigns like West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Steerside.

“I’m seeing people openly driving on our roads while inhaling from balloons in their mouths.

“It is something I have noticed a lot more in the last few weeks.

“Despite everything we do, we don’t seem to be improving either the situation or the perception for people out there.”

Officers told Cllr Azam that work was underway on a number of new road safety programmes, including a Bradford version of “Vision Zero” – a scheme aimed at bringing road traffic deaths to zero.

Cllr Azam replied: “It just seems to have been getting worse over the last three or four years.

“My father was left paralysed after being hit by a car when he was walking on the pavement.

“There is this perception out there that things in Bradford are getting worse.”

He asked for an update on what was being done to improve road safety to come before the Committee in the next three months.