Free parking and transport for Bradford Council staff should be scrapped to save cash, the Conservative group has announced.

It said its budget would include axing free staff parking and the free shuttle buses to take workers from car parks to City Hall and other Council buildings and branded the perks a “luxury we can no longer afford”.

The Tory group has not revealed how much the cuts would save, but the Liberal Democrat group’s deputy leader Councillor Riaz Ahmed said such a move would be impractical.

“The Tories had ten years in power to look at all this and could have done it then,” Coun Ahmed said.

“I think it is scraping the barrel to suggest this and there are other things one should be looking at.

“In some cases to attract employees organisations like the Council have to offer perks such as free parking.

“This is in their contract. The shuttle service is here to stay and I think cases of parking should be looked at individually.”

Bradford Council leader Ian Greenwood said that he could not comment on the Conservative plans, because his group’s budget needed to be submitted to the Trade Unions first.

But he has previously warned that millions of pounds need to be saved in 2012/13 on top of an already-difficult year of cuts.

Union bosses believe an estimated 500 jobs are to be lost at the Council as letters have been sent to employees warning of further cutbacks.

Councillor Val Townend (Con, Baildon) said: “In light of the savings that the Council needs to make it is simply unrealistic to be providing staff with free parking and free buses to shuttle them into work.

“It is in our view a luxury that we can no longer afford. Large private sector employers located in city centres rarely provide parking and free buses.

“We recognise that staff who use and value these perks are unlikely to be happy about the proposals, but we hope that they recognise that it is a measure aimed at protecting front line services and the jobs of those that provide to the district.”