Calderdale hate crime on the rise and employment falls in major review findings

Twice a year, the Council reports on its performance against its own priorities and compared to 20 other Northern areas.

The Council regularly reviews the factors its uses to track its performance, to ensure they meet current priorities and the Vision2024 for Calderdale.

It is carrying out a major review of this over the next few months due to the impact of the pandemic on aspirations and the need to recover and rebuild.

Councillor Silvia Dacre, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Resources, said: “The pandemic has undoubtedly made life more difficult for many people and organisations, but it has not stopped our determination to provide the best possible services to our residents. Despite the challenges, we will always be committed to helping people live healthy, happy, successful and equal lives, create jobs, boost business and protect our environment.

“It is pleasing to see the progress that has been made over the last few months, which is testament to the talent and resilience of our staff and partner organisations. Our latest performance review report celebrates key achievements, helps us to learn from success and shows where we need to improve and where we should target our limited resources to have the biggest impact.”

The latest half-year performance review report covers April to September 2020.

During this time the Council has said it has been maintained or improved services in many areas.

Calderdale is currently ranked sixth of the 20 Northern boroughs for performance in the priority areas.

However, there are some areas of concern and action is being taken to address these.

The borough is consistently outperforming other areas regionally and nationally in recycling.

When measured against the latest available confirmed data, for the last four years there has been an annual increase in the amount of household waste being recycled (it is now 33%) and a decrease in the amount of waste going to landfill.

Overall crime figures have come down in Calderdale. Between April and September 2020, the total number of crimes recorded fell by 11 per cent compared to the same time period in 2019.

However, there has been an increase in issues such as anti-social behaviour and hate crime. Tackling these crimes is a key focus for the Council and its partner organisations.

The borough’s 72% employment rate is lower than the regional and national average. T

The Council’s half-year performance review report will be discussed at its Cabinet meeting on Monday December 7 2020. The meeting will be held virtually from 6pm and will be live streamed through the Council’s YouTube channel.