On the face of it, it is very good news for Bradford and district that the local authority has set the lowest council tax increase in its history. The budget, which was being rubber-stamped today by the Council's Executive, includes an increase of just 2.88 per cent, slightly below the rate of inflation depending on which figures you look at.

It is also, of course (as cynics would say), particularly good news for the ruling Labour group as the budget will be neatly in place for the May local elections, which are the most significant in recent years, offering as they do the slim possibility of a hung Council.

But no-one should be surprised by that. Every political party wants to be seen to have its financial house in order when elections are due - although fiscal competence did not do much for John Major.

The real good news for Bradford is in fact that after years of wallowing in traditional local-government dogma, there are genuine signs of profound movement within the structure of the Council.

There is some real prospect, as evidenced by the shake-up in management and structure of directorates, that efforts to reduce bureaucracy and centralisation and concentrate more on delivery of front-line services are starting to emerge.

What voters will have to decide in May is whether or not they believe the efforts to balance the budget are just cosmetic or whether they will truly deliver the dramatic improvement in direct services which Bradford citizens demand and deserve.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.