FURIOUS members of Ilkley Parish Council this week demanded Ilkley's assets back from Bradford following the city council's decision to withdraw the town's £25,000-a-year administration grant.

Bradford's unpopular move - believed to have been a cost-saving measure prompted by the new Keighley Town Council's application for £150,000-a-year administration costs - was roundly condemned at the parish meeting.

It has prompted calls for Bradford to give back the Ilkley assets made over to Bradford Council when it took over from the former Ilkley Urban District Council (UDC) in the early 1970s.

Parish councillor Mike Lynes said that Ilkley had been let down by Bradford by a lack of funding and consultation. He said that when the urban district council was disbanded, Bradford took over its assets, including public buildings and income from the car park.

Coun Lynes said: "Bradford was charged with looking after public buildings, public parks, and public toilets. If they rescind the deal of 1974 they can't just rescind the parts that cost them money.

We should say to Bradford, delegate those funds from the general rate that you take away from us. Give us back the car parks and public buildings."

Finance and General Purposes Committee chairman, Councillor Heathcliffe Bowen said: "If we are going to look at this agreement from 1974, let us look at the whole of it. I fully agree with what you are saying."

Ilkley's car park is estimated to bring in £100,000-a-year revenue to City Hall and overall the Ilkley area is said to raise around £10 million-a-year for Bradford.

Parish councillor Brian Mann accused Bradford of wasting huge amounts of money, then trying to claw back insignificant amounts by fleecing Ilkley.

Coun Mann said: "I should be congratulating Bradford council for its prudence, but where is the prudence in the Oscar Faber consultations - where is the prudence in the Capital of Culture expenditure? They are absolutely nit-picking and overlooking gross expenditure at our expense."

Parish councillor Mike Exley said that at £25,000-a-year, the parish council was good value for money and relied on councillors working many hours for the good of the parish without any financial recompense.

He contrasted the figure with the cost of local district councillors Anne Hawkesworth and Chris Greaves, who both held executive portfolios at City Hall and whose expenses, said Coun Exley, were £25,000 and £17,000-a-year respectively.

Figures released after the meeting by City Hall for the year 2001-2002 showed Councillor Hawkesworth to have been paid £18,246 in expenses and allowances and Coun Greaves £13,062. These figures did not include subsistence and travel claims.

Parish council chairman Michael Gibbons accused Bradford of having a long-term plan to strip parish councils of their administration grant and said that the district council had tried to blame Ilkley for the problem by its decision to raise a precept for the first time this year.

He denied any suggestion that the parish council raising a precept had anything to do with the decision. He said that before the precept was raised, parish councillors were assured by City Hall officers that it would not affect the grant. Withdrawing the grant will have the effect of wiping out more than a quarter of Ilkley's £85,000 precept.

Councillor Gibbons said: "I believe for a long time they have been considering ways that they could withdraw their support.

"The issue has been discussed over many, many years. I do not believe that at this stage they had the right, without consultation, to withdraw this grant.

"The argument is that we are expensive and I absolutely disagree with that. If the idea is to get rid of a number of parish councils by the back door - I hope Bradford Council is absolutely unsuccessful.

"Bradford gets almost £10 million out of this parish."

And Coun Gibbons accused City Hall of a general lack of consultation, not just over the issue of the grant withdrawal.

"I think it is alien to current thinking in Bradford. Consultation is something that does not take place between Bradford Council and its parishes in general," he said.

Last night, a meeting was due to take place between parish council chairmen in the district and District Councillor Simon Cooke (Bingley Rural - Con) who is in charge of corporate matters at City Hall, to try to sort out the problem.

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