Holocaust Memorial Day
The annual day chosen to remember the millions of victims of genocide around the world was marked by us this week.
Thursday, 27 January marked Holocaust Memorial Day.
On Thursday 27 January at 10am the Deputy Lord Mayor of Bradford Cllr Bev Mullaney hosted an online event from City Hall.
This year’s event was organised in partnership with trustees from Bradford Reform synagogue. There was a welcome from the Deputy Lord Mayor of Bradford Cllr Mullaney and a message from the Leader of Bradford Council Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe. There was also a tribute to Jewish community leader Rudi Leavor by Suzi Cree and a tribute to Lilian Black by Nigel Grizzard.
A video message from all the five West Yorkshire local authorities was shown and other speakers included Diane Fairfax, Bishop of Bradford Toby Howarth, Sheikh Samy and Rabbi Anthony Gilbert. At 11am there was a candle lighting ceremony and the Deputy Lord Mayor closed the event.
The theme this year was One Day. One of the meanings of One Day is that we put aside time to come together to remember, to learn about the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Myanmar, Bosnia and Darfur, in the hope that there may be One Day in the future with no genocide.
LGBTQ+ History Month
 The Bradford district will once again celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, with a packed programme of exciting and thought provoking events from organisations across the district.
There is a fantastic range of events with something for all, whether a member of the LGBTQ+ community, an ally who’d like to show support or those who’d like to find out how they can become an ally. This year’s busy programme includes cabaret, dance shows, support groups, sporting events, and a celebration of queer icon and much more.
The month long celebration of LGBTQ+ history and culture will get underway on Tuesday 1 February at 9am with a special virtual flag raising ceremony featuring a diverse range of speakers from the LGBTQ+ community as well as representatives from Bradford Council, Bradford 2025 and Bradford Cathedral.
Bradford Clean Air Zone - What do you need to know?
 In preparation for the Spring launch of the Bradford Clean Air Zone we are encouraging residents and businesses to check their vehicles.
Use the government’s GOV.UK’s vehicle checker and check if charges will apply to your vehicle using your registration number. If you’re a business or organisation, you can check multiple vehicles.
We are providing the most extensive exemptions programme of any CAZ authority, enabling local businesses and residents to avoid charges for certain vehicles.
The Bradford zone will cover the area inside, and including, the Bradford outer ring road. It will also extend out along the Aire valley corridor, (Manningham Lane/Bradford road and Canal Road area) to include Shipley and Saltaire. View map information.
What next?
The Bradford Clean Air Exemptions Programme is expected to be launched in the coming weeks for Bradford District residents and businesses.
If you haven't done so already, register your interest by completing the Expressions of Interest Form.
Once the scheme is launched we will email further information on applying for exemptions once the process is live.
The Mills Are Alive
The Mills Are Alive in Manningham is a free, large-scale projection show which will illuminate Lister Mills' iconic chimney across the evenings of 3, 4 and 5 March 2022. It is brought to you by Bradford-based international arts company The Brick Box.
Intertwining archive footage, music, and original photographs, The Mills Are Alive will be an immersive experience which animates the histories and imagined futures of Manningham. The projections and sound will bring the brickwork to life with the stories of mill workers, the dreams of local school children, and the rich cultures of our community.
This is a free, non-ticketed event where audience members can come and go as they please.
Dates and times: 6pm - 9pm, : 3, 4 and 5 March, 2022
Location: Field on Patent Street, Bradford, BD9 5BE
Changes to the Highway Code
 Tomorrow (Saturday 29 January) sees changes being made to the Highway Code.
The changes follow a public consultation on a review of The Highway Code to improve road safety for people walking, cycling and riding horses, which ran from July to October 2020, and received more than 20,000 responses. Most people who responded were in favour of all the changes.
The introduction section of The Highway Code will be updated to include 3 new rules about the new ‘hierarchy of road users’.
The hierarchy places those road users most at risk in the event of a collision at the top of the hierarchy. It doesn’t remove the need for everyone to behave responsibly.
It’s important that all road users:
- are aware of The Highway Code
- are considerate to other road users
- understand their responsibility for the safety of others
In total 9 sections of The Highway Code will be updated, with 50 rules being added or updated.
Ten year strategy for Bradford Council's Museums and Galleries Service to be discussed
Members of our Executive Committee will discuss a confident and exciting future direction for the district’s Museums and Galleries Service, when they meet next week (1 February) to consider a new 10 year strategy for the service.
Highlights of the new Museums and Galleries Service Strategy confirm the service’s strong community focused approach. The council will work with partners within local communities to tell their own stories.
Alongside this, we are aiming to continue delivering its highly regarded national and international quality exhibitions and programmes, applying to Arts Council England for funding to support this grand ambition.
The work of our Museums and Galleries Service is a crucial part of the district’s cultural scene and part of the district pride that underpins the district’s City of Culture 2025 bid.
The Museums and Galleries Service cares for over a million items of art, social history, natural history, science and digital images, many of them of international importance and interest and all of tremendous importance in telling the District’s story.
The Strategy builds on some pre and during pandemic successes including free activity packs for families and children (funded by the Arts Council’s Museums and Schools programme); a great collaborative project that helps tell the stories of the district’s Caribbean communities and is currently an exhibition at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery; and a dynamic volunteering programme that helps bring the Council-run museums and galleries to life.
Takeaway trees at Cliffe Castle this Saturday
Our Tree for Every Child (TfEC) project is offering free takeaway trees at Keighley’s Cliffe Castle on Saturday, 29 January.
The stall will be open from 10am to 1pm by the castle’s main entrance. People can choose from Silver Birch, Downy Birch, Scotch Pine and Crab Apple varieties to plant in their gardens.
Takeaway trees are one of the four ways in which the TfEC project is fulfilling its target to plant 55,000 trees, the equivalent of one tree per primary school child over a four-year period. The project is also planting woodland, school orchards and native trees on school grounds. So far approximately 26,000 trees have been planted.
The stall will coincide with the Park Run at 10am, but it will remain open after the runners have finished and gone home, for other visitors.
Any schools still wanting trees through the project can email mel@treesforcities.org.
More schools to benefit from a Tree for Every Child planting
 We are working with partners to plant trees at a further 26 schools across the district, as its Tree for Every Child (TfEC) project continues to gain momentum.
The project will see trees planted at 46 schools this year, with 20 of them getting fruit trees and shrubs, delivered by Fruit Works Co-operative and other organisations helping to plant native trees.
Partners include: Bradford Environmental Action Trust (BEAT), Forest of Bradford – part of Bradford Environmental Education Service (BEES), and YORgreencic will be working with children, staff, volunteers, Trees for Cities and Bradford Council’s Trees and Woodlands Team to plant trees in the grounds of schools and nurseries.
BEES have already done some planting at Lidget Green Primary School in December. Approximately 55 children from four primary schools also planted several hundred trees at Newhall Park in early December, completing the planting started there at the end of November for TfEC and the Queen’s Green Canopy.
The following planting sessions have been set up so far for 2022:
- 1 and 2 February: St Columba's Catholic Primary School – planting with YORgreencic for TfEC and Trees for Cities’ Planting Healthy Air in Schools project
- 10 February: High Crags Primary School with YORgreencic
- 24 and 25 February: Newby Primary School with BEES
- 3 March: Farfield Primary and Nursery School
- 17 March: Strong Close Nursery with YORgreencic
- 24 March: St Clare’s Catholic Primary School with YORgreencic.
Bradford Council poised to introduce automatic waiting lists for school places
We look set to bring in automatic waiting lists for school places.
Under a proposed new system, families that are not offered a place at their first preference school will automatically be added to the waiting list for schools they listed higher up on their application form than the school where their child was offered a place. This would mean that, for example, if a child is offered their third preference school, they will be added to the waiting list for their first and second preference schools. Currently, families have to ask to go on a waiting list.
The move to the automated system is expected to be approved by our Executive at its meeting on Tuesday 1 February. If given the go-ahead, and subject to discussions with schools, the new system should be up and running for the primary and secondary school intakes for the 2023/24 school year.
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