IT'S about time a plea was made for more sensible local government. A few short years ago, Tony Blair's 'New Labour' Government announced a drive to try to modernise local authorities, sweeping away structures and management systems which had grown up since the birth of the monolithic town halls in the 19th century.

Instead of the old bureaucratic committee system, which incidentally had served us well for generations, local authorities were pressured into adopting a new 'corporate' structure as a reflection of the high-energy, high-efficiency go-ahead boardrooms of the major private companies.

City Halls were to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern business environment. What it meant in practice was that all the old committee names and managers' titles were swept away and replaced with new ones. It would do well to remember at this point the old saying: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

We were supposed to end up with ultra-efficient local government: what has actually been achieved is a confusing obfuscation which threatens to bewilder us all.

Nothing better illustrates the point than meetings this week in Bradford of the 'Safer and Stronger Communities Improvement Committee' and the 'Corporate Parenting Panel'. If there is anyone outside City Hall who has any idea what these bodies actually do, it would be nice to hear from them.

Earlier this month there was a meeting of the 'Corporate Improvement Committee' whatever that is, and soon there will be another meeting for of the 'Regulatory and Appeals Committee'. And if you want to ask the councillor in charge of any department what these committee actually do, don't ask for the head of department because they don't have one. You have to go to the department's 'portfolio holder' who sits on the council's 'Executive' (note - not 'Executive Committee). We are actually talking about a committee but which can't be called a 'committee'.

We don't have to go back to the old system but least we should try to adopt a more sensible one.