Addingham is to "bite the bullet" and become one of the district's first self-funding parish councils.

The decision was taken following a meeting in the village last week when parish council chairman Gordon Campbell told his colleagues that they may as well take the plunge "sooner rather than later."

Coun Campbell had just returned from two meetings with Bradford Council to discuss its plans to axe the funding of parish authorities across the district from March 31, 2004.

And while admitting that there had been no consultation and was still "huge confusion" over the details, he said he believed that Addingham should adopt a pragmatic position - and consider raising its first precept in 2003.

He said: "There are a lot of what-ifs but we've got to face the fact that this is going to go forward either in 2003 or 2004.

"They want an answer by the end of January. I'm tempted to suggest we have just got to go for it and take a chance.

"I think we have to say to Bradford that we'll do it in alphabetical order, we'll be the guinea pigs. It might as well be sooner than later."

Speaking after the meeting, he added: "It does now look like we will be going to Bradford to ask if we can be one of the first to go ahead with the new precept arrangements.

"We have no choice and we are going to have to tackle the problem either in 2003 or 2004. My personal opinion is we should tackle it in 2003 because we will get assistance from Bradford and if, by chance, we get anything wrong we'll have a second chance to put it right by 2004."

Coun Campbell told the meeting that for Band D householders the new "local tax" would cost under 60p a month, around £6 a year, on top of their property tax.

At the moment the Bradford District is the only remaining area in the UK where parish councils still receive outside funding for their running costs.

Councillor Alan Jerome said that was an "anomaly" they couldn't expect to be overlooked, and also expressed some cautious optimism over the parish precept plan.

He said: "If the precept is £6 a year and we can demonstrate to the people of Addingham that we're doing a good job for them then I don't think they will complain too much."

But both Coun Jerome and Coun Campbell acknowledged there were still some major questions to be answered, particularly when it came to the ownership, and management of the parish's assets.

Coun Campbell said: "It is vital that we protect the assets. We hope the hidden agenda is not that Bradford wants to get their hands on the assets currently belonging to the parish council."

Coun Jerome, however, said he was sure Bradford couldn't just "sequester" the parish's belongings, but was more worried about maintenance costs being passed on to Addingham.

He said: "I don't think they can take the assets from us but I also don't think, legally, they are required to maintain them for us.

"My worst fear would be that they say 'you keep the assets, you keep the income, but you are now the landlord, the owner, and if this building needs a new roof you pay for it'."

Coun Campbell agreed that would give the parish an "impossible budgeting situation", but acknowledged that at the moment such fears were only speculative.

One definite worry, however, was the fact that Addingham would be holding an election in May.

Coun Campbell said: "If we as a parish council put forward a precept now and were subsequently voted out then the incoming council would be saddled with it.

"In a way we are having to pre-empt the result of the forthcoming election, which is difficult."

The parish currently receives much of its £19,500 annual income from its assets, which include the Old School, the allotments and the bowling green.

The grant it receives from Bradford for parish council administration costs, meanwhile, is around £9,000.

Coun Campbell said future meetings with Council officers to clarify how the whole new system would work were essential.

He said a special parish meeting would be called early in the New Year to let the Addingham public have its say on the matter.

"We have to ask the people of the village to come and explain it to them all," he said, "give them the choices and ask them 'what do you want us to do?'."