SENIOR councillors have poured scorn on a new report which pinpoints Bradford as the most "dangerous" of Britain's ten most populous cities.

More than 1,700 people from across the UK were questioned in the poll, conducted by YouGov, and asked to rate how safe or unsafe they felt the cities were.

Bradford came out bottom of the list, and the only city where more people felt it was unsafe than safe, with 42 per cent saying they considered the city to be unsafe, compared to just 35 per cent who rated it as safe.

Edinburgh was deemed the safest place in the UK by 68 per cent of respondents, while Bradford's Yorkshire neighbours Sheffield and Leeds came out with ratings of 50 per cent and 47 per cent respectively.

On the YouGov website, a summary of the report's findings states that Bradford is "perhaps best remembered to outsiders" for the riots of 2001, which lasted for three days and led to hundreds of arrests.

Commenting on the results of the survey, Bradford Council leader David Green said it was based on perceptions rather than facts.

"The statistics would argue that Bradford is actually comparatively safe to other major cities," he said.

"The findings are based on people's perceptions, and we have no idea if these people have visited the city or not.

"There is still work to do to get rid of some of our historical baggage, but anyone who looks at recent events will see the facts don't support those negative perceptions.

"We're not complacent though, as people's perceptions can affect decisions on visitors to, and investors in, the city, and we will continue to work so that people have a considered and balanced view of the city and the district."

The deputy leader of Bradford Council, and portfolio holder for safer and stronger communities, Councillor Imran Hussain, said Bradford was no more unsafe than any other city of comparable size.

"We have had a lot of people from outside the district trying to portray us in a negative light," he said.

"Sadly, this has left a mark over time, but those of us in the district know it and love it, and anyone who visits here will see that the images they see elsewhere in the country are not true."

David Ward, Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, agreed that images of incidents such as the riots gave an "outdated view of the city."

"The image of the city centre has been badly tarnished in the past, but we have started to rebuild its image," he said.

"It takes many years to change some people's views, but we have to continue to try and do that across the country.

"We have learnt a lot of lessons from the past on how the city comes across to other people, but we need to be ever vigilant."