Documents issued by Government department reveal timetable for policy

If all goes according to plan, voters will pick an executive figurehead for the city with powers similar to London’s Boris Johnson.

That could include control over transport, housing, regeneration and planning.

The Conservatives were committed in their manifesto to holding a speedy “referendum day” on the issue in Bradford and England’s other 11 major cities but after the election they appeared to withdraw from that pledge explaining they would have to take account of the costs involved.

But in the Department for Communities and Local Government’s draft structural reform plan, quietly released while MPs left Westminster for the summer recess, the timetable for electing mayors is set at May, 2012.

But that is “subject to confirmatory referendums and full scrutiny by elected councillors” it adds and officials refused to say when that would happen.

They come as Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles – the former leader of Bradford Council – announced proposals to allow the public to veto large council tax rises.

He revealed council tax bills across England had doubled since 1997, pushing the average bill for a band D home to £120 a month.

Coalition ministers have pledged to work with councils to freeze council tax next year but Mr Pickles said he wants to prevent bills soaring down the line by giving local people the final say.

That means an end to the central government system of council tax capping. Instead any increases planned above a set ceiling – expected to be the rate of inflation – would trigger an automatic referendum of electors.

Residents would be asked to choose between the proposed rise and a “shadow budget”, which the council must also prepare within the defined limit. A no vote would leave councils having to refund taxpayers or give a credit at the end of the tax year.

Mr Pickles said: “If councils want to increase council tax further, they will have to prove the case to the electorate. Let the people decide.”