THE TORIES have accused Bradford Council's Labour leaders of dragging their heels over calls to slash the number of district councillors.

The Labour-run council agreed to hold an independent review into whether the authority needed all 90 politicians who currently sit on the council, or whether this number could be slashed to save costs.

But the opposition Conservative group, which is campaigning for a cut in councillor numbers, said little had been said about this review since it was revealed back in February.

Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the Conservative group, said: "Sadly though not surprisingly, we have heard nothing more about this review.

"This move was not unexpected by my colleagues and I, as we are fully aware that the Labour group does not wish to see any reduction in the number of councillors."

Cllr Cooke also voiced his fears that the review could prove a stitch-up if consultants were given the job, and called for the impartial Local Government Boundary Commission to oversee it to guarantee true independence.

He said this commission had recently reviewed arrangements at Birmingham City Council, which had now agreed to cut its councillors by 20 - a move expected to save the authority at least £320,000 per year.

He said: "I am now publicly asking Councillor Dave Green, the Labour leader of the council, to give assurance that an early independent review will be conducted by the Local Government Boundary Commission, as they are truly independent and unlike 'independent consultants', cannot simply be paid to produce the review conclusions that Labour councillors wish to see."

But Cllr Green hit back, saying Cllr Cooke had not raised these concerns directly with him.

He insisted progress was being made.

He said: "Currently we are preparing a questionnaire which will be distributed widely asking people what they see as the role of local councillors, which will be used as the basis for further discussions and also representations to the Boundary Commission should the decision be taken to ask them to review our current arrangements.

"There is also the uncertainty caused by the current devolution debate, which may well change the role and function of councils in the future and we need to see the outcome of this before progressing the matter further."

Earlier this year, Bradford's Conservative group called for the number of councillors on Bradford Council to be cut from 90 to 75.

At the time, Cllr Cooke argued that this would save about £250,000 a year, while slashing the number of council committees could shave an extra £250,000 a year off council budgets.

But Cllr Green had said choosing an arbitrary number of councillors would be "putting the cart before the horse", and a review could properly investigate how many were needed.