A year ago, we warned of the need for an open system of monitoring the performances of individual councillors so they could be assessed against the allowances they were receiving. This seemed particularly important given the forthcoming reorganisation of the Council which, we feared, could push the cost of allowances even higher.

In the year ending March 1999, the annual cost of allowances breached the £500,000 figure for the first time.

Now, with figures just released for the year ending March 2000, the price of the reorganisation is becoming clear. The figures include only three months of the reorganised system but allowances shot up to £656,900. It is probable that for the present year they could reach the £1million mark.

Many Bradford Council taxpayers have yet to be convinced that they are getting value for that extra money, it seems - although there is general acknowledgement that given the demands placed on councillors nowadays, decent allowances are necessary if people of the right calibre are to be attracted to the job.

So while people are prepared to fork out in principle, they want to be assured that they are getting a better-run district in exchange. That means that councillors have to be seen to be pulling their weight and delivering the goods.

With no monitoring system yet in place other than a list of who has been paid what, the public must rely on their perception to assess the performance of individual councillors. Those who don't make themselves available to the people who elected them and are not able to be seen to be working on their behalf could well - quite rightly - find themselves being replaced at the next election.