Council tax payers in Bradford may face a bill of up to £1million for their councillors - twice as much as the current cost.

It has been revealed that under the new-look Council, council leader Ian Greenwood is expected to get an annual "salary" of £25,000 - an increase of almost £6,000 - as leader of a new executive made up of super councillors which will make the City's key decisions.

He will get a job description, and be the equivalent of a salaried boss of a private company.

Other councillors would see the basic rate they are paid for the job increase from the current £2,000, to £7,500. But the increases would be offset by the axing of attendance allowances currently set at £25 for under six hours and £36 for over.

The radical changes will be debated at a special meeting of the Council tonight.

Council Tax payers pay £500,000 for the present allowance system and Chief Executive Ian Stewart said today he could not estimate the cost of the new look authority.

But he said it would be "significantly" higher than the existing set up. An insider said he believed it could be as much as £1 million, however.

The proposals also include for the first time a day care allowance of up to £25 a day to parents of young children or carers of other dependent people.

But members will have to report to Council taxpayers how they earned their pay with annual reports on their achievements over the year.

They will have to record meetings they attended in their wards and constituencies and how many complaints they pursued in their constituencies.

There would also be a clampdown on costly mobile 'phones which would only be provided to the leader and chairmen.

But today the leader of the Council's minority Tory group Councillor Margaret Eaton said she believed the electorate would see the payments as a "reward for failure."

She said: "It is the wrong time to do this. So many people are feeling let down by this - parents of children whose schools are unfinished, elderly people concerned about wheelie bins, problems with NVQ qualifications. The list is endless. I think it might be appropriate in a year's time when the electorate see whether they have delivered."

The proposals for the new level of payments have been made by an independent panel set up to look at members' allowances and support arrangements.

The panel recommends the scrapping of traditional attendance allowances in the biggest City Hall shake up for more than century.

The proposals for new allowances will be debated after an anticipated decision to form a mixed party executive, all party scrutiny boards to examine decisions, and a standards board with an independent chairman - probably a prominent citizen.

The proposals for the Council's restructure will go out for public consultation.

The independent study into recompense for members concluded that the leadership of Bradford's fourth biggest metropolitan authority was a full time job -whether or not the person has other employment.

Coun Greenwood is a former full trade union official who carries out his role as leader full time.

The report says: "A person of normal employment with similar responsibilities for the management of a very large organisation and a budget of hundreds of millions of pounds could expect t o receive a salary of well over £50,000. However, the principle of public service also applies to the Council."

It recommends that deputy councillor Mohammed Ajeeb, plus the leader of the main opposition party and those with comparable responsibilities should receive £17,500. Other councillors with special responsibilities such as leading scrutiny roles would be paid £12,500.

The top special responsibility allowance currently goes to Coun Greenwood and stands at £14,65.

In Leeds the allowance for the leader stands at £29,500, in Wakefield the figure is £29,600, in Kirklees £27,000 and Sunderland Council - a much smaller authority pays it leader more than £30,000.

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