Cash-strapped Bradford Council's decision to spend thousands on tower block's coloured lights called 'madness' by critics

The unusual claim was made after the cash-strapped authority came under fire for spending taxpayers' money on the decorative feature at the same time it was having to make multi-million pound cuts to services with one senior councillor calling the decision 'madness'.

The lights have been installed in a recess around the top of the old Central Library, which has been rebranded as the Margaret McMillan Tower and now houses the council's children's services staff.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, Liberal Democrat group leader, who is among those critical of the spending, said: "When times are hard and budgets are tight, we have to consider what we spend our money on. It all adds up."

Cllr Sunderland, who has long campaigned against cuts to social care for the elderly, described how she felt when she first saw the lights.

She said: "My initial gut reaction was, 'They should switch these off until every single child in Bradford reaches their potential, then put them on to celebrate'."

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But Paul Egan, Bradford Council's building technical services manager, sought to explain why the lights had been fitted on top of the nine-storey building.

He said: "The new energy-efficient LED lighting was installed as part of the regeneration of the whole building.

"The lights will help people navigate around the city and improve the look of the surrounding city centre streets as well as making them safer, especially for people using the car park behind the building.

"They can also be used to enhance festival celebration lights and for special awareness and charity fundraising days such as pink for breast cancer."

But this reasoning has not convinced the council's opposition Conservative group.

Its deputy leader, Councillor John Pennington, said: "To spend £13,000 on coloured lights at the top of a nine-storey building in central Bradford in the current economic climate is madness.

"As for the council’s comment that 'the lights will help people navigate around the city', it falls into the same category.

"In my view they are more likely to be of use to Leeds-Bradford Airport."

Cllr Pennington also queried why the lights were often set to red, asking whether it was a coincidence at a Labour-run council.

Councillor Val Slater, deputy leader of the Labour-run council, said the lights had been fitted to tie in with "an overall jigsaw making improvements to the city centre", from the laying of replacement paving stones to the installation of new tourist information maps.

She said: "It's a pretty prominent building is Margaret McMillan Tower, so it was thought as part of that jigsaw we would take that opportunity to put these lights on."

Cllr Slater said the money used was capital funding, and so could not have been spent on areas such as social care under finance rules.

And she said regeneration was also an important matter.

She said: "Yes, we need extra money for adult social care but we also need to bring more people into our city centre, making it more welcoming and feeling safe for them when they are here.

"We are trying to attract businesses and there are a growing number of businesses in that segment of the city. It is about working together to make a much more welcoming environment.

"Also, £13,000 isn't a great amount of money. Even if this could have been transferred over to social care, it wouldn't help that much."

Last month, Bradford Council finalised how it would save £61m over two years. The Labour-led authority made cuts to libraries, social care, winter gritting and bin collections, among other things.

Margaret McMillan Tower and the Sir Henry Mitchell House building next-door were both refurbished to bring more workers into the city centre and allow the council to pull out of leased offices elsewhere to save money.

The scheme cost £14.4m but is expected to save the authority £1.2m a year in running costs.