High-profile Bradford Congress will be extended - to include religious communities for the first time since it was set up four years ago.

It will also include a further-education representative as part of a shake-up.

The image of "secrecy" in the organisation which represents the district's main bodies, will also be quelled because it will put in regular reports to Bradford Council's Policy and Resources Committee.

Letters have gone out to the district's Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Christian faiths inviting them to nominate a member to sit on Congress, which deals with major issues across the district.

Further education bodies have already received letters asking them to pick a member for Congress.

Congress hit the national headlines three years ago when it set up the high-powered Bradford Commission to look into the Manningham Riots.

It stepped in after the then Home Secretary Michael Howard refused to hold a Government inquiry despite pressure from MPs and other bodies.

The organisation also helps to bring millions of pounds into the district by co-ordinating important bids, including the Government's Single Regeneration Bid.

But it has been criticised for secrecy because its meetings are not open to the public - although members report ba.ons they represent.

Council leader, Councillor John Ryan, said today Congress thought the faiths and further education had important parts to play in Congress which dealt with social issues, as well as the district's economy.

He said Congress had also agreed to report regularly to the Council's policy and resources committee as a "truly democratic body".

Congress secretary Charles Forgan said the invitation to the religious communities acknowledged their unique role in bringing people of differing traditions together.

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