THE varied life of Bradford City Hall was highlighted this morning as school budgets were being decided in one room while a Helen Mirren film was being shot in another.

Crews are currently based in City Hall for filming of The Duke, an art heist film based in the 1960s and starring Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent.

And this morning, amidst the filming, heads from local schools met in on one of the hall's committee rooms to plan the budgets for Bradford's schools for 2020/21.

The chair of the Schools Forum jokingly told members Dame Helen had been asked to stop filming to allow the meeting to take place.

The Bradford Schools Forum met at 8am in Committee Room 1, one of the hall's buildings that has remained virtually untouched for decades, and has been used to film other period pieces such as the ABC Murders.

Filming starts in Bradford on Helen Mirren movie The Duke

At the same time, many City Hall rooms, including the grand Banqueting Hall, were being used for filming.

Dianne Richardson, chair, started the meeting by jokingly saying: "To highlight how important this meeting is, Dame Helen Mirren has been asked to stop filming in here today so we can hold this meeting."

A few minutes into the meeting, a huge spotlight emerged at the window to the committee room, temporarily blinding the side of the room facing the window before the curtains were drawn.

The lights were being raised to the Banqueting Hall. on the second floor.

Gathering for the first time since the December General Election, the forum were discussing the budget for Bradford's primary, secondary and special schools during the three and a half hour meeting.

Among the changes to the budget is money allocated to schools to deal with rising pupil numbers.

Andrew Redding, schools finance officer told members that the "bulge" in pupil numbers seen in recent years had passed through the district's primary schools and had now reached secondary schools.

This meant that while recent years has seen a need for primary schools to expand, it was now secondary schools facing pressures.

To tackle this, the new budget will include £200,000 to help with primary school expansions - which could fund four additional forms of entry or bulge classes by September, and £800,000 for Bradford's Secondary schools. This could create 14 additional forms of entry or bulge classes in September.

The complex budget for the coming year was approved by the Forum, but aspects may depend on feedback from the Government.