Anger erupted today after a Council committee earmarked a deprived area for a multi-million pound regeneration scheme at a meeting which lasted just five minutes.

The Park Lane area of Little Horton has been selected to bid for cash in the Government's New Deal For Communities.

The district is in with a shout for the cash because it is one of just 17 pathfinder authorities picked by the Government for the new scheme.

They are likely to be awarded funds from an £800 million pot.

The Telegraph and Argus revealed exclusively last week that the Park Lane area had been chosen at a stormy meeting of the controlling Labour group, behind closed doors.

A recommendation that Little Horton should blaze the trail was approved at yesterday's corporate executive sub committee.

Angry members of the Tory and Liberal groups protested that they had been given no choice of areas and no full details of the Little Horton proposals had been tabled.

They said Council leader Councillor Ian Greenwood - who is standing for re-election in the Little Horton ward - should not have voted at the sub committee because of his position.

The final decision on which area should get the go-ahead will be taken by Bradford Congress - a partnership of all the district's leading organisations but its meetings are private.

Coun Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Council's Liberal Democrats, said: "We have been told there was a transparent selection process. But this was not presented to the committee and there are no background papers mentioned in the agenda report.

"It hasn't been explained yet why Park Lane was chosen."

Deputy chairman of the Council's Conservatives, Coun Richard Wight-man, said: "The Park Lane area may well be the right area for this project, but we don't know why and how the decision was reached by the Labour group and which other areas might have had the strongest claims."

But Coun Greenwood said the decision had not been taken by the group on an arbitrary basis.

He said close consideration has been given using detailed statistics for other areas, including Ravenscliffe, Horton and Barkerend.

Councillor Greenwood said Little Horton had been identified as the second most deprived ward in the country according to Government yardsticks.

The community has been planning and developing improvements to their neighbourhood for two and a half years. Councillor Greenwood said opposition councillors were offered all additional information, even though it had not been tabled at the meeting.

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