FULL council meetings are in danger of becoming a pointless, drawn-out talking shop, according to the leader of the opposition.

Conservative group leader Councillor Simon Cooke accused the authority of “failing to act on things that actually matter to the Bradford public” - and his comments have been backed by the Liberal Democrats.

Cllr Cooke said: “We are getting close to a situation where at the end of every council meeting, we look back and all we have done is pass motions which involve writing a letter to someone.”

He said they often spent time debating matters the council had little or no control over and accused the majority Labour group of routinely voting down opposition councillors’ suggestions for changes which would affect people’s lives in Bradford.

Cllr Cooke spoke out after the latest full council meeting on Tuesday, which lasted for more than five hours, and included debates on the reintroduction of grammar schools, the work of the Boundary Commission and the Battle of Orgreave, a violent clash between the police and striking miners in South Yorkshire in 1984.

He said: “I was a bit cross because we put down things where we are trying to get positive changes and they just vote it down because it is our motion.

“I think we have to think very seriously about what it is we are using our time for because we spend five and a half hours at the meeting and I’m not sure what we did couldn’t have been achieved in an hour and a half.”

He said some other authorities restricted full council meetings to discussions about matter the council controlled.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said Cllr Cooke’s comments were “a fair analysis” of the situation, adding that she had raised similar concerns with chief executive Kersten England.

She said: “The trouble is the Labour group is using the council meeting to bring together its own members around some of these common socialist issues and the discussion around Orgreave was a classic example.

“There was no case made whatsoever for why Bradford Council should be involved in that, or why it was an issue for Bradford people.”

Cllr Sunderland said a matter far more relevant locally had been Conservative Councillor Dale Smith’s call for the law to be tightened around dangerous driving, on the back of the Telegraph & Argus Stop the Danger Drivers campaign.

She said the Labour group’s “refusal to support Dale Smith was pathetic”.

Councillor Martin Love, leader of the Green group, said he had “some sympathy for what they are saying, particularly after Tuesday night”.

But Cllr Love said the Conservatives were “as guilty of causing the problem as anyone else”, adding: “If they want it to be over quicker, then they should speak a bit less rather than spouting off for ten minutes just because they are allowed to.”

Cllr Love said while the Greens were not told which way to vote, most other councillors were whipped by their parties, which rendered a debate pointless.

He said: “There’s no point in a 10-minute speech if you are not going to change anyone’s minds.”

But the Labour council leader, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, said what she had seen at full council on Tuesday was “Labour councillors speaking powerfully about the issues that matter”.

She said: “We talked about education, sustainable local planning and how Bradford is represented in Parliament.

“The opposition, on the other hand, complained about ambulance sirens being too noisy and devoted considerable time to arguing for vaping in offices, which we debated in the right way.”

She added: “Full council is an opportunity for opposition members to hold the ruling group to account and I’d encourage them to continue using the chamber to do so.”