Bradford Council's executive committee has seconded senior arts and regeneration officers to try to give the doomed Priestley Centre a future.

But they turned down Labour members' plans to make £50,000 available to cover its debts, at a meeting at City Hall last night.

Labour leader Councillor Ian Greenwood said the committee was not learning lessons from the failed Capital of Culture bid. He said: "In the letter from Tessa Jowell about the Capital of Culture bid which we had pinned all our hopes on, she said there was a lot of froth and not enough substance in the bid, not enough cultural infrastructure.

"We have been told in clear and explicit terms that we have not got enough cultural infra-structure and now we are talking about closing one of the bits that still exists.

"That is clearly ludicrous. It is not just a building, there are people involved. You are showing a lack of clear vision and understanding."

A report from last week's Overview and Scrutiny (Regeneration and Culture) committee recognised the "importance of the Priestley Centre in terms of the regeneration of Little Germany and the cultural aspects of Bradford" and that all options to keep open the centre should be examined.

An amendment was put forward by Councillor Anne Hawkesworth (Con, Ilkley) that directors of the Arts, Heritage and Leisure, and Regeneration and Housing work closely with the centre to develop a viable business plan.

She said: "We also expect that one member of the Capital of Culture team still in contract would be expected to work to assist."

Leader of the Lib-Dems, Coun Jeanette Sunderland, supported the idea of secondment to help the theatre access funding.

Meanwhile, members of the Priestley Centre for Arts Ltd yesterday deferred a any decision on whether the company should go into voluntary liquidation.

Chairman of the board Glen Boldy said they had received many offers of help.