The first draft of a long-awaited report, expected to heavily criticise the district's schools chiefs, has finally landed on the education director's desk.

But a row over the publication date of the report from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has continued.

In a letter to council officers, the education watchdog said the contents of its report could not be revealed to councillors or the public until May 22 at the earliest.

This will be after both the local elections and May 16, when Bradford Council's economic scrutiny committee is due to discuss controversial proposals to bring in a private company to work in partnership to manage the district's schools.

Opposition councillors believe the privatisation plans are a direct result of the report, although the Council denies the link.

The Council's chief executive, Ian Stewart, stressed the Council had no control over the timing of the report's publication. And he said the scrutiny committee was free to rearrange its meeting to a later date when the findings would be available.

Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor Jeanette Sunderland described the situation as farcical.

"We are going to scrutinise these proposals," she said. "But we don't know if it is the answer to the problem because we haven't been told by Ofsted what the problem is yet.

"I think it should be published before the election for no other reason than it is an inspection of how good or bad education is in Bradford. I believe the report will be bad and this is a pre-emptive strike."

Conservative leader Margaret Eaton said the report should be seen sooner rather than later.

"People seem to be making decisions without knowing the details of the report," she said. "Obviously there is a link between the two issues."

Education director Diana Cavanagh now has to check the report for factual errors. Her team will present their findings to Ofsted inspectors in Bradford on Tuesday.

Ofsted will then consider their comments and prepare the report for publication some time in the week beginning May 22.

A spokesman for Ofsted said the education watchdog was operating to its own schedule. It was the Council's decision if it wanted to consider bringing in a private company.

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