A campaign is being launched to force Bradford Council to hold a referendum on a planned shake-up of the way the local authority is run.

Bradford South Conservative Association is starting a petition in June to collect 18,000 signatures to force the Council to act.

Association chairman Robert Reynolds said: "Under Government rules five cent of the 360,000 people in Bradford eligible to vote must be in favour of holding the referendum before it can go ahead.

"We will start collecting names for the petition after the local elections on May 6 and the Euro elections on June 10. We will be knocking on doors and asking people on the streets to sign it.''

The Council is already sending out questionnaires to all households in the city to ask people for their views on the revamp which will affect Councils across the country.

One option is to have a directly-elected mayor, the political leader of the Council, working with a cabinet appointed by the mayor. The mayor and cabinet would make some executive decisions and the Council would agree the budget, policy framework and appoint the chief executive and chief officers.

The second option is to have a directly-elected mayor in partnership with a Council manager/chief executive, giving them powers to rule the city with less power to councillors.

Bradford's ruling Labour group has been criticised for missing this option off the questionnaire.

The third alternative is a Westminster-style cabinet of leading councillors, appointed by the leader or the Council, meeting in private. This is favoured by Council leader Coun Ian Greenwood.

Mr Reynolds said: "The biggest gripe from people in Bradford is that there is too much secrecy at the Council and they don't know what is going on. The option favoured by Coun Greenwood would mean just as much secrecy as before and change nothing. We believe a referendum is needed to let the people of Bradford make their own choices.

"We can no longer stay silent and do nothing as the Labour Council tries to sweep our democratic rights under the red carpet. We feel an elected mayor will stop political bickering and help Bradford go forward and make it stronger.''

But Coun Greenwood said: "This petition for a referendum is just blatant electioneering and part of the nonsensical buffoonery that comes out of the association. We are already consulting the people of Bradford about the reforms and they will indicate what should happen.''

The association said last week it had polled 28,000 people asking if they wanted a referendum for an elected mayor and 80.4 per cent of the 524 returned so far said yes.

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