Yet again Bradford is faced with a Council tax increase of more than twice the rate of inflation, this time on top of nearly £2 million-worth of cuts in services to balance its budget.

This will be deeply disappointing to many people but should come as no surprise after the wrangling which has gone on over Bradford's actual and expected population figures. These have shown the Government basing its allowance for the district on a lower population than Bradford's own figures.

This is a complication that Bradford could well do without and one which will not be resolved until the next census in 2001. As seen from the local perspective rather than the Whitehall one, Bradford does have a growing population. Moreover, the bulk of that growth is in a section of the community which, because of its special needs, puts a strain on the public purse.

Bradford's multi-cultural nature, its social make-up and the fact that it has a large inner-city area do throw up problems which can only be addressed through adequate funding. That is a fact of life, and one for which the Government needs to make proper allowance when allocating its spending budgets rather than relying on an ever-increasing local contribution to underwrite national under-funding.

It may not be a politically-correct thing to say, but the reality of Bradford is that its multi-cultural make-up does mean that it has special needs, particularly in the fields of education and social services, and the Government must be made to recognise that.

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