ONCE again, Bradford Council has come under fire for pumping money into the city centre and allegedly ignoring the outlying areas of the district.

This is certainly not a new argument.

Going right back virtually to the days of the local-authority changes some four decades ago, people in Keighley and surrounding towns and villages have accused City Hall bosses of focussing on Bradford at the expense of communities beyond the metropolis.

Campaigners’ calls for Keighley and Shipley to ‘break away’ and take back control are still heard today.

Council chiefs of course refute any suggestions that they favour the city centre in terms of investment over other areas and point to the fact that money is being spent in Keighley and elsewhere.

And they stress that their economic strategy applies to the whole district.

That may well be the case, but the fact is there remains a strong perception that some parts of the Bradford metropolitan district are a ‘poor relation’ and don’t receive a fair share of cash.

Council bosses still have considerable work to do to convince many in Keighley and beyond otherwise.