Leaders of a £50 million inner city regeneration scheme are trying to find a legal loophole so the volunteer board members can get paid.

Twelve elected residents sit on the powerful New Deal for Communities board. Together with professionals from the council and local business, they will decide how the £50 million windfall will be spent over the next ten years in the Little Horton area.

The board has voted to pay each of the 12 a flat fee of £1,000 a year.

It is the first of Bradford's community regeneration schemes to make such a move - volunteers who run the Royds, Manningham and Newlands multi-million pound schemes are not paid.

But the plan has hit a setback because under Benefits Agency rules, directors who are in receipt of state benefits would lose out if they received the £1,000 payment. Their benefits could be docked.

Now the New Deal board is lobbying senior civil servants in the Benefits Agency.

Councillor Ian Greenwood, who is chairman of the New Deal Board, said: "In principle, we believe they should receive a modest payment to recognise the work they put in."

Steve Boyle, chief executive of Manningham & Girlington SRB, said: "Our community directors get no remuneration and are not paid expenses."

Jez Lester, chief executive of the Newlands SRB partnership, said: "All we pay is reasonable travel expenses to and from board meetings."

And at Royds, Peter Eccles, the chair of the £17 million partnership, said: "The idea of paying our directors was mooted once, and we immediately kicked it into touch. We feel strongly that we should not get paid - we wouldn't do this job, if we were."