A major political battle to replace the role of Bradford's Council leader with an elected mayor is getting under way.

If the new People's Mayor campaign gets enough support, an election could be held in 2006. But senior councillors strongly opposed the idea.

The non-political campaign needs five per cent of the registered electorate to support the plan, which means a petition of 19,000 signatures.

All have to be collected within 12 months of the first one.

The group hopes to start the petition next summer. If successful, the Council would have to organise a mayoral election within six months of the petition being handed in at City Hall.

The team behind it will be spending the autumn and winter trying to raise campaign funds and assessing how much public support there is.

John Crewdson, chairman of the campaign steering group, admitted: "It is an enormous task so we want to raise enough funds to employ a campaign co-ordinator full-time. We need nearly £50,000. Ten per cent of that would be raised locally with the rest coming from other bodies such as the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which sponsors social projects."

From January next year the group hopes to hold a series of public consultation meetings, possibly one for each of the district's 30 wards. Mr Crewdson hopes to find enough volunteers in each ward to join up to the campaign and take on the task of collecting signatures.

Mr Crewdson, a public sector worker in Bradford, believes an elected mayor can appeal to an electorate fed up with politics.

"The campaign believes quite strongly that Bradford Council has a weak political leadership," he said. "We don't think the way it works benefits the district. We have had a high turnover of leaders over the last ten years which means there isn't much stability.

"For the last few years the Council has been hung so there have been negotiations between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to get the majority between them.

"Now we have the situation where the leadership is just the Conservative party, but because they are a minority administration many things are voted on by the full Council - this does not make for quick leadership."

He says an elected mayor would make the day-to-day decisions move more quickly, cutting the number of council meetings and possibly even reducing the number of elected councillors.

Of the 11 elected mayors in England, many are independent of any political party, and Mr Crewdson said: "I don't think we want to involve political groups.

"We want people who are just interested in their community."

Mr Crewdson is 28 and a former member of the Labour party, but he says the campaign is politically independent and he says the best elected mayors are, too.

"Personally I would like to see someone with a bit of vision - possibly not a politician. I think we are looking for a risk taker, someone prepared to be radical and take the bull by the horns.

"I was born in Bradford and have lived in it for most of my life. I feel very affectionately towards the city and want to do something that could be a change for the better. I feel Bradford has a lot of potential and a lot to be proud of."

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, Conservative group whip, said: "The checks and balances which exist in the cabinet system are credible. For one person to have say over the whole authority is questionable. I strongly disagree with the idea."

Councillor Ian Greenwood, leader of Bradford's Labour group, added: "We oppose having an elected mayor, we believe the situation we have at the moment genuinely represents the people of Bradford. We have had discussions in the wider community and have convinced the Government it would not work."

A public meeting on the issue will take place on Wednesday, September 29, at 7pm, in Bradford Resource Centre, 17 to 21 Chapel Street, Little Germany.