A £4.5 billion pension scheme for the region's local government employees is under pressure to stop investing in tobacco firms.

The Bradford Council-run West Yorkshire Pension Fund will face calls to be more ethical at next week's meeting of the Council.

Green group councillors have tabled a motion asking it to end its investment in companies like British American Tobacco.

Councillor Kevin Warnes (Green, Shipley) said Bradford Council was in a position to influence the investment strategy, as it runs the fund.

Coun Warnes claimed that of the Fund's £4.5 billion of investments only £2 million are in so-called 'ethical trusts'.

He said: "The Fund has to maximise value and minimise risk but there is a social responsibility clause which says that all things being equal the board should pay attention to more socially responsible investment.

"If they can find shares in a company that is performing as well as tobacco there is no reason they should not switch."

He added: "There are other organisations, such as the Co-op which do not invest in tobacco. The fact we invest in it makes a mockery of the Council's official stance. You have the leader of the Council saying we have to improve the health of the people of the district and at the same time people investing in the pension scheme are, in effect, benefiting from the tobacco industry."

A spokesman for Bradford Council said: "All investment decisions go through the investment advisory panel, which meets on a quarterly basis."

But one of the Council's two representatives on the board, Councillor Ian Greenwood who chairs it, said he and the other members cannot impose a political view on the investment strategy.

He said: "When we sit on the investment panel we sit as trustees of the fund and have a legal obligation to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries, We are legally debarred from taking a political view - where would we draw the line?"

The Green group motion will be put before council members when they meet on Tuesday at City Hall.

The meeting begins at 4pm and is open to the public.

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