A senior council officer has been suspended on full pay after dropping a £600,000 clanger over the housing accounts.

Investigations have revealed the cash has not been transferred from the housing capital account to the revenue account.

The authority will now have to examine its capital programme - which includes items like double glazing for tenants - in the light of the blunder.

The Council has stressed the misplaced money is in the accounts and there is no question of fraud.

Now opposition Tory and Liberal Democrat councillors are calling for an inquiry into housing finance because the latest problem follows a £1 million deficit last year.

The Council says the deficit has now been recouped through an emergency action plan.

Tory Council leader Margaret Eaton said the housing accounts appeared to be "a shambles".

The latest suspension comes as it is revealed Bradford Council is suspending staff at the rate of almost one a week which is costing the tax payer thousands of pounds.

The number of council officers and workers suspended during the year ending March this year soared to 48 - more than three times the number three years ago.

The officers are suspended on full pay usually for alleged gross misconduct which cost £217,000 last year.

Now a major row has erupted as trade unions and opposition politicians attacked the authority for "knee jerk" reactions .

The GMB and Unison say they believe Bradford Council's lengthy investigations are a major cause of heavy levels of stress.

Regional officer Steve Morris for the GMB said he had not come across similar problems in other authorities.

"I believe Bradford Council has a knee jerk reaction. Some people have been suspended for about a year.

"To quote the Magna Carta 'delayed justice is no justice.' I am extremely concerned about this. If staff do return to work after this length of time the relationship between employer and employee is jaundiced.

The record is held by Council's former director of Special projects Ian Charlesworth who had two periods of suspension totalling two years. He later left the authority on the grounds of ill health.

Figures released today by the Council show 18 workers were suspended between 1995 and 1996.

From 1996-97 the number rose to 30 but it leaped in the past year to 48.

The total cost of the suspensions over the three years was £600,000. Of the 48 cases, 26 have been concluded and the others are ongoing. But 11 people have been dismissed, five received warnings, five resigned and action taken against five.

Offences of gross misconduct include harassment, assault, theft, falsification of accounts and failure to comply with management instructions.

Council leader Councillor Ian Greenwood said suspensions were not taken lightly and were imposed to allow thorough investigations.

He said they were sometimes delayed because the workers involved became ill.

"They cannot be rushed through because they must be absolutely fair to the worker."

Chairman of the Council's personnel sub committee Councillor Gillian Whitfield said the figures showed the suspensions had been justified.

She said the suspensions accounted for only 0.1 per cent of the 23,000 strong workforce and the average laying off time had been reduced to four months.

Coun Whitfield said the figure was similar to other authorities.

A recent stress audit of council workers carried out by consultants from Sheffield University showed about 12,000 workers were suffering from stress and teachers were the worst hit.

Unison branch secretary Liz Devlin said they were deeply concerned about the suspensions and long periods of time involved.

"We have made representations about the reasons for suspensions and why they have taken so long.

"It is hard not just on the people who are suspended but the people who are left doing their work."

Leader of the Council's Tory group Councillor Margaret Eaton said they believed problems may sometimes be buried under the carpet with prolonged suspensions.

But this was strongly denied by Coun Greenwood.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland leader of the Council's Liberal Democrat group said: "We feel the issue is about leadership and good management. But we feel that these figures do not give the full picture."

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