Bradford Council wants to show local authorities across Britain how to fight crime - by becoming one of Tony Blair's model councils.

The Council has submitted a bid to become one of the first Beacon councils, celebrating excellence in local government.

The bid is based on its efforts and achievements in cutting crime and fear of crime in Bradford city centre and Keighley, Bingley and Shipley town centres.

It comes as the Council also prepares to submit a bid to become a European city of culture.

The Beacon Councils will be announced by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott after short-listed candidates make presentations to an independent advisory panel.

The applications are spread across seven areas of council business, ranging from schools to crime prevention - and Bradford has picked community safety.

Council Leader Coun Ian Greenwood said: "There is a lot of good work being done in Bradford.

"We are making great strides in our aim to make the district a safer and better place to live, work, study and socialise.

"This is a real chance for us to be recognised for what we are doing as much as sharing our experience with others."

He stressed the Council was not complacent and was genuinely striving to improve the way it managed the authority.

But the deputy leader of the Council's Tory group, Coun Richard Wightman, said he was astounded by the announcement. "When one looks and sees that Doncaster has also put in a bid on the basis of its planning procedures, you wonder if it is an April fool joke. Maybe the bid should be based on their success in staving off industrial tribunals," he said.

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe welcomed the bid on the basis of the Council's work in community safety.

But he said: "I think they have more difficulty in other aspects. I would like to see the status right across the authority."

The leader of the Council's Liberal Democrat Group, Coun Jeanette Sunderland, said she supported the bid and any extra funding it might bring to Bradford.

She said the Council's work in partnership had improved but she feared some of the crime statistics might be misleading because measures including closed circuit television might have displaced it elsewhere.

The Council's initiative in fighting crime and making Bradford safer has already been picked as a Best Value national pilot scheme.

Bradford is also one of only 12 'Pathfinders' areas in the country to help the Home Office identify the best ways of tackling crime and disorder in communities.

Now the Council has invited the Government's new Improvement and Development Agency to scrutinise how it is performing.

The inspection will take place in February next year.

Authorities which are short-listed for Beacon status will be visited by Government officials who will assess their performances.

The Council is in competition with Leeds, Kirklees, Sheffield, Wakefield, York, Doncaster, Harrogate, Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Mr Prescott has received a total of 269 applications from 211 councils across the country. The winners will be announced in November.

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