Council leader Margaret Eaton warned today that Britain's fourth biggest metropolitan authority could grind to a halt if new legislation comes into force.

She said the Council's business could be halted if officers had to ask permission to "blow their noses".

Now the Council is expected to ask the Government to clarify sections of the Local Government Access to Information Regulations, which came in on December 19 and say the public should be notified more than three days in advance on key decisions to be taken by officers.

The same rule will apply to important decisions being made by executives and other committees.

Councillor Eaton said: "We need to know what officer decisions are considered managerial and what are policy.

"If you wanted officers to have to ask permission every time they had to blow their noses you would never get any work done. But we have always had the strong view that the public should have access to information."

A leading Liberal Democrat councillor also claimed some of the contents of the new Local Government Act appeared to have been made "drinking wine at dinner parties" by people who had no idea of how councils worked.

Councillor David Ward, executive member for education, said he believed officer decisions were less secretive in the hung council where all parties had to be involved.

But he added: "The difficulty is defining a key decision. My own view is that some of these things have been put in by people who have no idea how local government works.

"It seems to be like people sitting round drinking wine at a dinner party and thinking it sounds and looks good."A row erupted in the district recently when council officers decided to increase trade refuse charges at a time when the local authority was having a blitz on litter.

A decision was also taken behind closed doors to contribute funds towards a survey on a landfill tip at Odsal Stadium where developers Sterling Capitol plan a £60 million scheme.

Leader of the Labour group Councillor Ian Greenwood said the community should have known about a decision by chief executive Ian Stewart to demolish Eccleshill School - although he stressed he was not criticising Mr Stewart.

lThe Council is about to go into a major public consultation exercise over its existing interim model, which includes an executive chaired by the council leader and scrutiny committees.

Residents will be given details of three Government-approved models and asked for their views, which the Council must take into account when it agrees its permanent set-up.

The models are the executive with leader; an elected mayor with a manager; or an elected mayor and executive.