A row erupted today after residents, councillors and officers working on a multi million bid for deprived Little Horton stayed overnight in a luxury hotel - only 15 miles away from Bradford.

The 18 members of the shadow board dealing with the Government funded scheme stayed in the luxury Craiglands Hotel in Ilkley at an away day, working on the vital bid.

They arrived at the prestige hotel - where double rooms cost up to £100 a night - on Friday teatime.

After dinner in the exclusive hotel, they say they worked until 10.30pm on issues surrounding the bid which would bring between £20 million and £50 million for Britain's second-most deprived Council ward.

The members say they were back hard at work before 9am - and arrived home in Bradford that evening more than 11 hours later, after dealing with issues all day.

The away-day was funded from a £200,000 Government pot set aside to prepare the bid.

The board is made up of residents, outside organisations, councillors and council officers.

But today board chairman Councillor Ian Greenwood came under attack over the stay in the prestige hotel in idyllic surroundings while considering the problems of the needy in Little Horton.

Leader of the Council's Tory group Councillor Margaret Eaton said: "I find it very difficult to see how Coun Greenwood and his colleagues can justify spending so much on luxury accommodation when they are supposed to be considering the problems of one of the most deprived communities in Britain.

"Many people living in Little Horton have probably never stayed in a hotel before."

And she added: "The group could have chosen a venue in the city without having to drive to Ilkley. I have no objections to the meeting but I really do think in the circumstances it would have been appropriate to use somewhere readily available in Bradford such as City Hall or the Carlisle Business Centre. There are lots of cheaper places."

But Coun Greenwood, also Council leader and ward councillor, said they needed to get away to remain together working late into the evening and back again in the early morning

He said the organisers had tried "quite a lot of places" but they were uncertain of numbers and the Craiglands was the only hotel which could take them. It also gives discounts to parties of 18, making a single room £65.

Board member and Council tenants' leader Lil Acklam, who asked for the time away said they had more than paid for the cost of their stay by the work they had carried out for the community free.

She said: "We have been working on this since last September and we've had no expenses - not even our bus fares paid. I asked for us to go to Ilkley because it is just far enough away."

She said most of the board had taken part.

"We went there because there were certain issues we couldn't work out ."

Miss Acklam said her position as chairman of the Triangle Tenants Association meant she was always in demand.

"I wanted freedom of mind in a place which was away. We got through a hell of lot of work. Things gelled and I felt we really achieved something.

"This came from the £200,000 we were given to put things together. It is nothing to do with Mrs Eaton. She can keep her nose out of it and if we deem it necessary, we will do it."

Little Horton has been picked by the Government as a trail blazer for the New Deal initiative. The huge regeneration scheme will focus mainly on job creation schemes in the unemployment blackspot.

The main bid for funding is due to be submitted in July.

A spokesman for the Department of Transport and Environment for the Regions said: "It is up to the partnership to decide how to do this and the Council as accountable body for the scheme to ensure the money is properly accounted for."

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