Severe weather update at the end of a busy week

Extreme weather update

Message from the Leader of Bradford Council

Council leader, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, said: “I would like to send out a huge thank you to everyone who has worked so hard this week to keep the district safe and moving, including council staff, our partners, volunteers, community groups and residents who have helped, particularly our vulnerable residents to stay safe and well.

“I’d also like to thank people for their patience where we’ve not been able to deliver services such as bin collections as we would have liked to. We’ll get caught up as soon as we can”

Weather forecast

The Met Office has not issued any current weather warnings covering the Bradford district. But please keep an eye on the weather forecast and take extra care on the snow and ice.

Update on delayed bin collections

Thank you for bearing with us this week. Cancelling bin collections is a very difficult decision to make, but we have to consider the safety of both our staff and residents.

We have decided that the best way to catch up with missed collections will be to collect all waste (both general waste and recycling) from missed properties on the usual scheduled collection day next week, weather permitting!

For example, if your recycling (grey) bin should have been emptied on Wednesday but wasn’t, please leave both your grey bin and your general waste (green) bin out well next Wednesday. Both will be emptied, either by our recycling or general waste crews.

If you have any questions, we have put together a page about bin collections following the bad weather that should answer most things.

One of our bin crews that went back out first thing this morning had quite a creative way to clear snow off their vehicle.

Please don't report missed bins this week

If we haven't emptied your bin as scheduled this week, there is no need to report it to us. All roads that we cannot reach are reported automatically, and our waste team managers know where we have and haven't managed to reach.

Please bear with us at this difficult time. Our contact centre are getting a lot of enquirers at the moment, as you can imagine. It would help them get to other important questions quicker if you don't report missed bins.

We will collect extra waste when we come back

Although we wouldn't normally take extra bags of rubbish, if we haven't been able to empty your bin this week we will take bagged up extra waste when we come back.

More about collections

Gritting and roads update

All priority routes are open and traffic is running freely. Secondary routes are generally passable with care and we are refilling over 600 grit bins. We are clearing roads that had snow drifts on them. We will continue to monitor the roads to ensure we grit where necessary.

Our emergency management team have been on constant contact with our partners this week. We assisted our partners in the police yesterday with the use of 4x4s from our countryside services so that they could get to rural areas. Additionally, when the countryside services have been out in rural areas they have been assisting pedestrians on the roads.

Winter and gritting

Caring for people in their homes

Home care assistant Linda visiting residents

Here's Linda, one of our dedicated home care assistants getting out to visit people in their homes early on Thursday morning.

Some of our home care and residential care staff have walked to work this week, and worked long hours to ensure people are safe.

We were worried at one point that some people would not receive a hot meal. But fantastic work by our staff in the Access team and Support Options meant alternative arrangements were made for everyone.‬

‪Staff in Adult Social Care work around the clock to make sure those needing support and care are looked after throughout the day, working weekends and after hours.

More about social care

Keeping yourself, friends, and neighbours well

Please do what you can to help make sure that you and your friends and neighbours stay warm and well.

Support for vulnerable people

The Warm Homes Healthy People service provides individual support to the urgent needs of vulnerable people living in cold homes. The service is free to any householder who lives in the Bradford Metropolitan District and who meets the eligibility criteria.

To find out more or make a referral, please call us on 0808 1683547 (freephone) or 0113 238 0601 or visit the Warm Homes Healthy People website.

If you are concerned about vulnerable neighbours or friends during the severe weather, please contact our Adult Services Access Point as soon as possible on 01274 435400.

People helping out

Here are member of our clean team is working with council wardens to help residents with basic food supplies and snow and ice clearance of steps and footpaths.

Josh (13) & Hannah (10) from Eldwick showing great community spirit & care for their neighbours working together clearing people’s driveways. Josh said "It’s been nice because people have been really kind & helping each other out’.

Lucy, Aliya, Kodi all (13) from Holme Wood, Bradford have been helping people get their cars on the way. Lucy said: "Everyone round here just get’s stuck in & helps each other. Drivers have been really grateful & everyone said thanks."

Help for rough sleepers

Working with our partners we have already opened our cold weather provision for rough sleepers. Additional beds are being made available and outreach workers are out making sure no-one has to sleep on the streets in the cold weather.

Everyone who stays for a cold weather bed is provided with support around resolving their housing situation on a longer term basis.

If you are worried about someone sleeping on the streets, please call 01274 309165.

Help for rough sleepers

Theatre productions going ahead as planned

Bradford Theatres staff have pulled together over the last few days of adverse weather conditions to enable performances of War Horse at the Alhambra Theatre and Buddy Holly & the Cricketers concert at King’s Hall, Ilkley to go ahead as planned. All departments have committed extra time and effort to make sure customers could enjoy the shows. Our Box Office team have managed a high number of calls and when possible re-seated customers that couldn’t attend the performances.

Sports pitches closed this weekend

All Bradford Council sports pitches will be closed this weekend due to the weather. This is the first such closure the council has had to make this season and we are hopeful that fixtures will be back to normal for the following weekend.

Other service disruptions

Please see the service disruptions page of our website for other services affected by the weather. We will tweet about any changes.

Council service disruptions

Looking after pets

It’s not just people we need to look out for, here’s some advice for looking after animails.

Dangers of frozen ponds and lakes

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) would like to remind the public to take extra care if they are out and about enjoying the snow this weekend. Fire Chiefs would like to remind people never to venture onto frozen lakes or ponds as thin ice can be incredibly dangerous and if anyone were to fall into freezing water it would be in a life-threatening situation.

Playing in the snow can be great fun, getting outside, building snowmen, having snow ball fights and sledging but it’s not without danger. The RoSPA website includes tips for playing safely in extremely cold conditions.

Safe driving tips

The advice is to avoid unnecessary journeys but if you do have to drive, take care and be prepared.

If you are driving over the next few days, please allow plenty of time, leave plenty of space between you and vehicle in front, and drive slowly and carefully. This applies even on gritted roads, which can still be hazardous.

In extreme conditions, ask yourself

is your journey necessary.
have you checked weather forecasts and road conditions and carefully considered the advice given.
have you got plenty of fuel.
does anyone know your destination and expected time of arrival.
have you got warm clothing, hot drinks, food, Wellingtons, a torch and shovel with you.
If you park your car on a gritting route, please remember, a gritter is about twice the width of a car, so try and park so that our guys can get through to grit the roads.