Union officials in the district’s public sector have cost taxpayers more than £800,000 in the space of a year, according to a report released today.

Figures released by the Taxpayers’ Alliance show the money was paid to representatives of Bradford Council, NHS, police, fire and ambulance taking time off to perform union duties.

The alliance has estimated Bradford Council spent £434,163 on union representatives’ facility time in 2010/11, with a further £68,870 spent by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Bradford District Care Trust (Mental Health).

Across the county, a further estimated £305,047 was spent by West Yorkshire Police, West Yorkshire Fire Service and Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

Bradford Council’s Conservative group described the money spent as “absurd”.

But Labour described the comment, on the eve of huge planned public sector strikes next week, as an “attack on human rights”.