A new plan to phase out Bradford Council's community services department was rejected yesterday.

The authority's corporate improvement commission called on the ruling executive to withdraw the proposal and come up with a new policy.

Earlier this week the authority's executive recommended a delay in axing the department, instead phasing it out by March 2006.

It will now have to look at it again, but the controversial issue will first be debated at full Council.

The department employs staff who help with the day-to-day management of dozens of community centres, and groups across Bradford say they are wary of the staged closure.

Some volunteers fear their centres will close without Council assistance, even though the new proposals include support plans for smaller groups.

The Reverend Chris Howson, chairman of the Holme Wood Activity Centre, believes the authority should keep the whole community service in-house.

He told the committee: "We should have a Council committed to serving the local people's needs and one that is not wholly bent on privatising anything it can. The slow break-up of the service is not an appropriate response from a responsible council."

However Elizabeth Hellmich, chairman of Manningham's Millan Centre, said she was not opposed to the changes, but objects just to the speed of them.

She said the phase-out option would give her organisation a better chance of survival. "We were always working towards independence but it was meant to be several years down the line. This will speed up that process and give us enough time so that we don't rush it," she said.

"The Millan centre is now providing everything the Council's own area action plan recommends, and if it closes the Council would have to reinvent the wheel. So I would ask any councillors voting on this to give us as long as possible to cope with the change."

Fareeda Mir, of the West Bowling Advice and Training Centre, was sceptical and said she needed to see the detail of the new proposal. She added: "This should not have happened in the first place. I am glad they are now recommending some extra time, but whether that works in our favour remains to be seen."

Tony Everson, chairman of Mortimer House, Bradford Moor, said he too had fundamental problems with the privatisation and described the entire plan as 'presumptuous'.

He said: "The delay is obviously helpful but the crux is still there - we are lay-people we are not business-people and they are asking us to take over responsibility, not only for budgets, but for people's livelihoods."

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