FURIOUS councillors have accused Labour of "marking their own homework" by appointing party colleagues to key watchdog roles at Bradford Council.

The Council's Liberal Democrat group whip, Councillor Dominic Fear, said he was "deeply concerned" that decisions made by the Council's Labour executive would be examined by committees chaired by fellow Labour councillors.

He said he was particularly worried that the corporate overview and scrutiny committee, which scrutinises how the Council is run, and the governance and audit committee, which oversees how the Council is governed, would both once again be chaired by Labour councillors this year.

Cllr Lynne Smith (Lab, Wibsey) will continue as chairman of the Governance and Audit committee, while Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Lab, Windhill and Wrose) will be the new chairman of the Corporate overview and scrutiny committee, a meeting of the full Council decided today.

But Cllr Fear (Idle and Thackley) said: "I am deeply concerned that policy set by the Labour executive will be scrutinised by committees run by Labour councillors. It has the feel of the Labour party marking their own homework, yet again."

Cllr Fear said the matter was particularly worrying given that councillors were given an allowance - currently about £12,000 - for chairing these committees.

He said: "Scrutiny of the executive is being carried out by those that are financially dependent upon the good favour of the executive to maintain their position of influence and their pay and rations. How can they be relied upon to be open and transparent or even remotely critical of the hand that feeds them?"

Cllr Fear said the council should follow the example of Parliament, where an opposition MP chaired its public accounts select committee, which scrutinises Government finances.

He said: "It is a great shame that Labour in Bradford are seeking to avoid any real scrutiny of policy or finances and this can only be attributed to the feeling that their policies would not stand up to any rigorous form of scrutiny."

But Bradford Council leader Councillor David Green reacted angrily to Cllr Fear's accusations.

He said: "There are times when I wish that was true - maybe the executive's decisions wouldn't be given such a hard time by the scrutiny committees.

"We are very clear, we have never whipped members of the scrutiny committees and I think people who have been to scrutiny committees would recognise there is no fear or favour shown by any of the chairs."

Cllr Green also pointed out that two of the council's five scrutiny committees - those for children's services and the environment - were chaired by councillors from the Conservative and Green groups respectively.

He said: "The Liberals basically, some years ago, took their bat home from involvement in the functions of the Council, and it is hypocritical of them to put out this particular press release when they in the past have actually refused positions and to take part in the running of the council, which is one of the things they are elected to do."