Bradford Council leader Ian Greenwood has called for “meaningful consultation” on the structure of regional bodies after the Government announced the abolition of a layer of bureaucracy.

Councillor Greenwood said there had been little or no consultation on the decision to axe the Local Government Yorkshire and Humber Leaders’ Board, by Communities Secretary and former Bradford council leader Eric Pickles.

He said that, while he was not in favour of enormous regional committees, he was anxious that boards which performed a useful function should not be abolished without dialogue with councils.

Coun Greenwood, who also leads the Labour group, said: “If we were to do this properly, the Government should be having meaningful dialogue with all local authorities in the area.

“I would hope we are looking to get a consensus across all parties about the architecture of regional structures. We would rather do that in consultation rather than it being handed down.

“We do need to speak to each other as local authorities. The days when we were competing with each other have gone.

“I don’t believe we should look to create enormous super structures of committees, but I don’t think we should get rid of things that are working well.”

The leaders board, which included the leader of Bradford Council, replaced the appointed assembly which previously had responsibility for a number of strategies on issues, including transport, housing and planning.

Under reforms introduced in the last weeks of the Labour Government, leaders’ boards were given powers to draw up Regional Spatial Strategies, including housing targets.

Carole Hassan, chief executive of Local Government Yorkshire and Humber, said: “We have been working with the region’s councils and the functional sub regions to review and streamline activity on the regional level for a number of years.

“The announcement by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government brings forward the work that is already progressing on this agenda.

“While this will have an impact on the organisation we are working with staff and trade unions to minimise this impact and find alternatives to redundancy.”

Mr Pickles said regional leaders boards cost £16m a year.