THE number of district councillors should be slashed to save money at Bradford Council, according to its Conservative group.

Bradford Council's Labour leaders, who must close a £41 million funding gap this year, have been consulting on a series of proposed cuts.

But the opposition group has now unveiled its alternative budget and long-term savings plans, which also include having local elections only once every four years and building new schools instead of new swimming pools.

Councillor Simon Cooke, deputy leader of the Conservative group, said reducing the number of councillors from 90 to 75 would save about £250,000 a year.

He said that by holding local elections once every four years, rather than the current arrangement of elections in three years out of four, the authority would save a further £500,000 over a four-year period.

And slashing the number of council committees could shave an extra £250,000 a year off council budgets, he said.

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Cllr Cooke said while some of these changes would have to be approved by the Electoral Commission and would take some time, they would send the right message out to the electorate.

He said: "We think that is quite a significant saving, without really affecting how we operate as a council."

Other ideas include axing the Labour group's plan to build four new swimming pools across the district and instead using the money to build new schools.

Cllr Cooke said: "It's clear we need new school places."

And the Conservatives are also calling on the Labour administration not to impose a planned 1.6 per cent Council Tax rise this year.

Cllr Cooke said the Council was expecting to have £2.5 million left over from its 2014/15 budget, almost exactly the amount raised by the last Council Tax hike.

He said: "All we have done is given ourselves the cash in the bank."

The Council's Liberal Democrat group is also calling for a Council Tax freeze.

Its leader, Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, said her group would also be looking carefully at how the Council procures social care, and the impact this had on care workers' wages.

But she said the group was not yet ready to unveil its proposed budget amendments in full.

The Green group is also yet to unveil its budget amendments.

The authority's budget will be set at a full council meeting on Thursday, February 26, at 4pm at City Hall, Bradford.