A councillor could be rapped at a meeting chaired by the Bishop of Bradford following a rumpus at an Education Committee meeting.

Liberal Democrat councillor David Ward is the first member to be referred to the new Standards Committee on reorganised Bradford Council.

Education Committee chairman Councillor Susanne Rooney has asked for a Standards Committee review after a blazing row over two schools last month.

She said Coun Ward (Idle, Lib Dem) should not have given details about the responses of individuals to a public consultation exercise when he spoke during the debate.

Coun Rooney claims her colleague also telephoned people who had put their views.

The Standards Committee, chaired by the Right Reverend David Smith, has a remit to look at conduct of councillors and other complaints which could include allegations of irregularities or maladministration.

But today the leader of the Council's Tory group, Councillor Margaret Eaton, said: "This is a storm in a teacup and it is not what the Standards Committee is for.

"If councillors are getting more worried about what is being said than delivering services we might all just as well pack up and go. This is not democracy. We're going to reach the stage where every time we have a Council meeting people are going to be reported.

"Anyone who takes part in a public-consultation exercise knows that their views can be made public. This isn't a secret society."

Coun Ward discussed the poor response to the public-consultation exercise on the future of Greenfield and Ellar Carr schools during a debate

The committee decided to close Greenfield and enlarge Ellar Carr to take more boys with behavioural problems.

Coun Rooney said: "I am concerned about the people who filled in the consultation documents in good faith."

But Coun Ward said: "If we are getting to the stage where we can't say things, democracy doesn't exist any more. This consultation wasn't confidential. It was in the public arena.

"My point was that the decision was based on flimsy consultation. I did telephone people and some people didn't even remember they had filled the forms in."

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