Independence for Ilkley and Keighley, as advocated by Keighley Conservative MP Kris Hopkins at the recent annual meeting of Oxenhope Parish Council, is not a new idea.

Ever since the scrapping of unitary Urban District Councils under Local Government Reorganisation in April, 1974, disgruntled politicians representing better-off areas have occasionally publicly regretted the union with Bradford – sometimes with good reason.

They resented their rates being siphoned off for urban inner-city schemes in what they thought were Labour areas. In return, resentment of well-heeled Conservative areas like Ilkley was palpable among some inner-city Bradford Labour councillors during the first recession in the early 1980s, which clobbered manufacturing.

What is new is Mr Hopkins’s line of argument. As reported in the T&A last week, he reversed the idea that Ilkley and Keighley would be better off without Bradford, suggesting that the deprived areas of Bradford would attract more Government aid without these two areas “masking” them.

The former leader of Bradford Council said: “It’s not about turning my back on Bradford, it’s about getting a decent return for the people that live in this area.”

Councillor Ralph Berry, the portfolio holder for children and young people at City Hall, said Mr Hopkins’s proposal would “fragment and damage” services that have been carefully grafted back on to Bradford Council, in particular education.

He said: “Keighley has some pretty severe pockets of poverty. In Keighley Central, which has the worst youth unemployment, they need the skills and capacity that can be developed across the district.

“Keighley is an area where Bradford is putting in significant resources into turning round issues. Its history of educational issues is pretty poor and needs to change dramatically.

“This is a seriously malicious and dangerous proposal that plays local prejudices against the needs of children.”

Ironically, perhaps, it was during Kris Hopkins’s tenure as leader that Bradford Council started the process of reclaiming from Serco the control of education, which Coun Berry is now in charge of.

According to information gathered by Bradford Council – some of which features in the book Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, by Bradford University academics Janet Bujra and Jenny Pearce – the gap between the least and the most deprived areas in Bradford was the largest in the country.

While Wharfedale and Ilkley were ranked in the 15 per cent least deprived areas, Manningham and Bradford Moor were in the five per cent most deprived, with 35 per cent of households in Manningham surviving on incomes of less than £15,000.

“Bradford also has the highest number of children living in poverty in West Yorkshire,” say the authors. “Another fracture line was between urban and rural areas. Access to housing, shops and services is poor in parts of the Worth Valley, Queensbury and Tong and even Wharfedale.”

To Coun Berry, the idea that Bradford should make the most of its deprivation in the hope of more central government funding is tenuous.

He said: “The Government has diverted money from poor areas to the south. Kris Hopkins never sought to use this argument to divert funds to Keighley when he was leader.”

Local authorities wishing to change their boundaries can make an application for a review to the Local Government Boundary Commission, an independent body. However, what Kris Hopkins is calling for appears to be contrary to a trend in local government that has been going on at least since the credit crunch impacted two years ago.

Last August, for example, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield district councils signed an agreement to share legal expertise and other resources in an attempt to save £1.6m annually across all five authorities.

The Conservative-controlled councils of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster are merging services, from the office of chief executive to street cleaners, to try to save up to £100m a year. At least 15 local authorities have shared chief executives.

Conservative councillors on Calderdale and Kirklees have agreed proposals to merge services, as well as change the electoral boundaries between the two local authorities.

A merger of the two authorities, like independence for Ilkley and Keighley, is not a new idea, however, it is thought to be electorally unlikely.

Given this trend, is it likely that the Government will agree to Kris Hopkins’s request for a referendum on independence for Keighley and Ilkley?