Bradford Council's Tory and Liberal Democrat groups want to inject millions of pounds into education services in the district.

The Tory and Liberal Democrat groups put their budget proposals to a two-hour executive committee meeting yesterday with both making education their top priority. The Tories want to inject £4 million into schools, while the Liberal Democrats propose double the amount.

The Liberal Democrat budget would produce a 9.3 per cent increase in the Council's contribution to council tax while the Tory proposals would result in an 8.4 per cent hike.

They would total 10.5 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively when the anticipated fire and police authority precepts are added to them.

A total of £1.3 million set aside for Bradford's Capital of Culture bid would be cut by the Tory group in its budget proposals with funding instead allocated to hard-pressed libraries and museums and other cultural projects.

They include a scheme for lighting the city which was in the original bid and will still go ahead, and an allocation for an Angel of the North-type gateway to the city.

Leader of the Council's Labour group, Councillor Ian Green-wood, said it was closely considering the budget and would examine the proposals put forward by the other groups.

Director of finance Steve Morris was instructed to analyse the proposals from politicians to try to find common ground and bring a report to next week's executive committee.

A recommendation will then be made to the full Council which will take the final decision.

The Tories say their proposals would not cut services but would increase funding in crucial front-line services.

They propose £4 million more for education and schools, a £2.6 million increase for social services and £900,000 more for arts, heritage, leisure and cultural services.

It would include £250,000 extra for the museums, £100,000 extra for libraries and £100,000 for sports development. There would also be £420,000 extra for other cultural developments. There is also a strong focus on the environment with £250,000 more to make people more aware of litter problems and £60,000 to improve access to the countryside.

The Tories also propose an extra £400,000 towards information technology improvements in the authority's ageing systems.

Education projects earmarked in the Liberal Democrat budget are for English language development, bursaries to encourage under-represented groups to become teachers and support for individual schools on social cohesion activities.

The Liberal Democrats want £1 million set aside to improve school buildings and £2 million to help social services care for children and improve services to the elderly, including adaptations to help them stay at home for longer.

Their budget proposals include extra cash for road repairs, street lighting and recycling.

Group leader, Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, said: "This budget will help the Council to focus on the issues which really matter to people - raising educational achievements and caring for our old people.

"Unfortunately, the Government effectively forces councils to increase their council tax by more than the rate of inflation so that they can avoid putting up income tax."

Councillor Simon Cooke, deputy leader of the Tory group, said he recognised that there was a need to look at improving libraries and other cultural facilities and its budget would boost services instead of cutting them.

The Green Party has prepared its own budget to go to the Council and proposes 'diverting money from public relations exercises such as the Capital of Culture bid' into 'real' services to improve the lives of district residents.

Group leader Councillor David Ford said they wanted to strengthen key services, improve efficiency and minimise the council tax increase.

He said the way forward in Bradford did not lie in "party-political bickering".