Councillors walked through this placard-carrying crowd into City Hall last night to agree a Council tax increase of 2.8 per cent.

The decision - taken at a private meeting of the Labour group - is expected to be rubber stamped at the full Council meeting.

It will put the authority on a standstill budget but Council leader Councillor Ian Greenwood said today they would still be able to put their promised £5 million into schools.

He said it would be achieved through prudent housekeeping by management and no allowance for inflation in some cases.

Coun Greenwood added the increase - which is well below the Government 4.5 per cent guideline - was the lowest in Council history.

The crowd outside City Hall was protesting about the Council's decision to re-organise its top management, and also fears that the building maintenance section would be privatised.

Staff from the local education authority said they believed the service would suffer because the job of director of education would vanish and they feared that jobs would be lost.

Consultants have been called into the building maintenance section after a damning report by auditors KPMG last year and an action plan being put in force.

Coun Greenwood said: "We are looking for the best services for the people of the district while protecting jobs."

But he added that the protesters had not contacted him to ask for a meeting and he believed people may be "posturing" without serious intent.

The lobby was organised by all unions representing City Hall workers, including Unison and the GMB.

Keith Dale, secretary of Bradford Unison branch said they were concerned about the possible privatisation of the building section.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.