A ROW over whether council cash is being split fairly between community centres shows no sign of abating.

Shipley Area Committee has been asked to reconsider how it has divided a funding pot between four community centres.

It is being asked to think about how its decision will affect the particularly deprived ward of Windhill and Wrose.

Last month, the Area Committee had to decide how to allocate a reduced grant of £68,000, designed to fund community development workers at local community centres.

The Tory-dominated Area Committee opted to give £20,000 each to Baildon Community Link and Kirkgate Community Centre, Shipley, while Community Associations in Bolton Woods and North East Windhill - both in Windhill and Wrose - were to share £28,000 between them.

But angry Labour councillors from Windhill and Wrose, who had wanted the cash split equally across all four community centres, 'called in' the decision for scrutiny, on the grounds that there hadn't been a proper debate.

Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Lab, Windhill and Wrose), told the council's corporate overview and scrutiny committee that the loss of funding would see community development workers in one of the district's most deprived areas having to cut their hours.

The scrutiny committee asked the area committee to reconsider its decision.

Its chairman, Councillor Rizwan Malik (Lab, Heaton), said they had concerns that the area committee had overlooked the deprivation levels in Windhill and Wrose.

But the committee decided against taking the more drastic step of taking the decision away from the area committee and handing it to the full council instead.

Cllr Malik said that would be setting "a very dangerous precedent", especially as the control of the funding had only recently been devolved down to area committees to ensure decisions were taken at a local level.

Cllr Malcolm Sykes (Con, Thornton and Allerton) added: "It should be debated properly back where it belongs, and that is back with the area committee."

Afterwards, Cllr Ross-Shaw said he was pleased with how the meeting had gone.

He said: "It's what we expected, to be honest. It has been devolved, and it is right that the decision is taken by the area committee.

"It's just really about having the opportunity to have a look at it and making sure that the right decision has been made."

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