Extra long bank holiday breaks enjoyed by thousands of Bradford Council workers for about 20 years may soon come to an end.

Chief Executive Ian Stewart said today talks were being held over proposals to end the tradition where most of the Council's 23,000 workers gain an extra day off at Easter and the bank holiday at the end of August.

Mr Stewart says he wants to provide a better service to the public and customers must come first.

But public services union Unison said today more than 1,000 staff who worked on the Tuesday would lose out because they received double time in overtime payments.

Liz Devlin, joint chairman of the Council's Unison branch, said talks had begun but the union asked Council management for an alternative because more than 1,000 workers, including care workers and home helps, would lose out financially.

She said the Council would save about £800,000 if the extra day was added to ordinary holiday entitlement.

"This has been an agreement for at least 20 years and would mainly affect low paid workers."

Miss Devlin said the union was not in dispute but she was disappointed the management had not yet come up with an alternative which would be taken to a general meeting of members.

Constant complaints are made by the public about offices being closed for extra days while other shops, offices, factories and businesses return to work.

Residents are unable to contact services like cleansing, street lighting and housing and are forced to wait until the offices re-open a day after everyone else.

But Mr Stewart said he had inherited an agreement between the Council and unions that the holiday continued until Wednesdays, keeping the doors of a number of offices shut.

He said: "My view is that the Council is here to provide a service to the public. We are negotiating with the trade unions but agreement has not been reached yet." He added that Tuesdays following the two bank holidays had been made 'privilege' days under the agreement made long before he became Council boss in May 1999.

But Mr Stewart said the extra days were part of annual entitlement which ranged from 20 to 30 days a year, depending on grading and experience.

If the 'privilege' days ended they would probably be added on to leave. He said he also hoped to negotiate with unions on longer Council opening hours.

And this year offices will only be closed at the Christmas break for Christmas, Boxing and New Year's day.

They would only be taken by staff where alternative cover was provided for services.

Mr Stewart said: "We have got to change our hours and increase rather than decrease. We have to develop and upgrade our service. We recognise that customers come first."