Debate heats up over MP Robbie Moore's bill to change council boundary

However, a Labour shadow cabinet member said the proposal stemmed from the fact that the “unambitious” Tories had given up on leading the Council in its current form.

The debate was part of a bid by Robbie Moore, Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, to change local authority boundaries to “re-empower local communities that feel completely disenfranchised and forgotten about” – and it was up for debate for a second time in Parliament.

Robbie Moore, MP for Keighley and Ilkley (Image: Robbie Moore MP)

As Mr Moore made his case, citing issues such as the Clean Air Zone and a u-turn over plans to close the tip in Keighley, a fellow Tory MP, James Daly, for Bury North, responded by saying: “My honourable friend has made a compelling case in respect of Bradford Council, and all of us who take an interest in these matters know what a dreadful council that is, given how it treats my honourable friend’s constituency. But this problem exists throughout the country.”

The Keighley and Ilkley MP hopes through his Local Authority Boundaries (Referendums) Bill to see smaller unitary authorities being created.

Speaking at the bill’s second reading he said: “If a local authority is too large in terms of the number of residents it represents, or its geographical area is too great, or a single city within a local authority’s boundaries is getting all the attention from that local authority, with the outlying towns and villages being deprioritised, there is a real risk that communities will suffer.”

He received support from fellow Conservatives, including Shipley MP Philip Davies who argued that if all of his and Mr Moore’s constituents voted against the local Council, it would still not change its make-up.

Mr Davies said: “That means that we are completely disenfranchised when the council is merely concentrating on its Bradford city heartland. Is it not the case that this Bill, which would allow a referendum, would enable people, including those in Bradford because it would affect them as well, to have a say?”

Mr Moore added that his area had one of the largest unitary authorities – Bradford Council currently covers a population of around 550,000 people.

City Hall in Bradford (Image: Newsquest)

“The root cause of many of our problems is that my constituents feel that they are being used as a cash cow for Bradford and getting very little back in return,” he added.

“Council tax and business rates are all sent from my constituency to Bradford City Hall, while nowhere near the equivalent amount of funds are being reinvested back into our area.

“The Keighley and Ilkley and Shipley constituencies generate the highest tax revenues for Bradford Council through our council tax and business rates payments.”

However, Labour’s Sarah Owen, MP for Luton North, and shadow minister for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government, hit back describing Mr Moore’s bill as “a bizarre piece of legislation”.

She said: “It is a shame that Robbie Moore uses his opportunity to speak in this House about local government by advocating for unneeded changes to boundaries rather than calling for existing councils to be adequately supported.”

She continued, asking whether Mr Moore is “mis-selling the solution when he tells his constituents that the answer to all their woes and daily challenges is to create a unitary authority for their constituency”.

“If things are so bad—they already have a Tory MP and a Tory Government—the possibility of a Tory-run local authority probably is not going to help the situation.”

The MP added: “What is behind the legislation is a lack of ambition for the honourable member’s community and constituents, and for his party to beat the Labour party in Bradford. That is where his efforts should be targeted—winning power through democratic means in his own area—but it seems that he has already given up on that, and wants instead to legislate his way out of a hole.

Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe has previously argued against the proposal to split the district, saying it does not make sense to set up two local authorities where there is now one which would double the costs.

Mr Moore’s bill was adjourned with the debate to be resumed on March 24.