Labour today pledged a programme of investment in local services, coupled with prudent management of Bradford Council's spending, as it launched its election campaign.

The party's local manifesto launch came as the election campaign hotted up. The party said it would focus on education as the key for future prosperity and harmony, and pledged investment to achieve higher standards in schools.

It claimed the Council spends less on education than the amount recommended by the Government and less than similar authorities, and claimed its proposals for this year's budget would have meant an extra £1.3 million - £15 more per pupil and £450 per class.

Promises in the manifesto include:

l Providing a nursery place for all three-year-olds, reducing charges for music tuition and providing free music teaching for children from low income families;

l Extra spending on street cleaning, recycling, and clamping down on environmental offenders;

l Protecting green areas and taking action against unscrupulous developers flaunting planning control;

l Securing extra resources to complement existing CCTV and secure parking schemes;

l Increasing the use of anti-social behaviour orders and extending the provision of neighbourhood wardens;

l An extra £350,000 for youth services, bringing spending up to two per cent of the Council's budget as recommended by the Government;

l Investing in essential social services to include more help for older people to continue living at home if they wish to;

l Keeping Council tax rises within Government guidelines while investing in essential services;

l Replacing rhetoric with real, visible development;

l Taking measures to slash the £100,000 a month of taxpayers' money which the Labour group claims the Council currently spends on outside consultants.

Group leader Councillor Ian Greenwood said: "Our pledges are a thoughtful, constructive and practical response to the situation in which we find ourselves. People should not be sold short."

Candidates have gone to the hustings with the hope of getting a clear majority on the Council, which became hung two years ago after a decade of heavy Labour control.

Labour needs to gain five seats to take control again, while the Tories would need ten. The Liberal Democrats, who currently support a Tory leadership, hold 11 seats and are contesting all 30 wards. Councillor David Ford is the Council's only Green councillor and his party is contesting 13 wards.