Bradford's newly-appointed chief education councillor is confident he can help raise pupils' achievement.

Coun Colin Gill has been appointed to the role after Coun Dale Smith was controversially sacked by Tory group and Council leader Kris Hopkins.

In an exclusive interview with the Telegraph & Argus, Coun Gill said there was only one topic on his agenda - pupil progress.

He said: "There is only one issue education in Bradford is facing - achievement, pure and simple. We can bandy around this subject and talk about opportunity and success. What we actually mean is every child fulfiling his or her potential."

Despite Bradford being placed 149th out of the country's 150 local education authorities in this year's league table of 11-year-olds' performance at Key Stage Two, Coun Gill said he was confident he can turn the situation around.

He said: "I know where I want Bradford to be heading - that's to number one. Now it may take us a little bit of time to get there - but that's where we are going. We have to remember that free state education was invented in my ward, Bingley, in 1812.

"We built the first national school in 1814 - we are the innovators and leaders. The rest of the country follows us and we need to be out there again, setting the pace."

Coun Gill admitted he does not yet have an in-depth knowledge of the many education issues in the district, but he said he had started a series of meetings with Bradford Council and executives of Education Bradford, the private company that is midway through a £360 million, ten-year contract to run the district's schools, to get fully briefed.

He said: "I am fairly new to this job but I have spent many hours meeting as many people as I can to understand where we are.

"I suppose the first thing to do would be to admit that I do not know much about education.

"However, there are lots of highly-paid, well-qualified experts working in the district. The job for me will be two-fold - firstly to make sure the systems and right people are in place doing the right things.

"Secondly, the other part of my job is to be a cheerleader. To get out there and enthuse, motivate and inspire. Despite the apparent doom and gloom we have achieved success.

"We have consistently improved our results for the last five years. It is unfortunate that in this last year we have not improved as quickly as some of our statistical neighbours. Nevertheless, we are far in advance of where we were in 2000/01."

Coun Gill said he had begun his own review of the Education Bradford contract and was looking at what "funding streams" are available to schools.

e-mail: dan.webber @bradford.newsquest.co.uk