Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore has said he will “campaign like there is no tomorrow” against planned cuts to assets and services by Bradford Council, including the closure of Ilkley tip.

The local authority announced the swingeing measures in a bid to plug an estimated £72 million gap in its finances.

Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe said in a statement: "No Council should be having to choose between funding services for communities and neighbourhoods, and funding services for vulnerable children and adults, but that is the situation we find ourselves in.

"The demand for, and cost of, providing residential placements and home-to-school transport is unsustainable for many councils on top of the effects of inflation and reductions in central Government funding since 2011. "I am asking Government to fix the dysfunctional children's social care market and fund local services effectively so that we can continue building a future that enables everyone in the Bradford district to make the best of opportunities available to them here.”

But Mr Moore said the fault for the financial situation lay firmly with Labour-run Bradford Council. He said: "Labour want you to pay for their complete incompetence and not only that - but for you to suffer poorer local services as a result as well.

"It is infuriating but unfortunately not surprising that under Labour’s watch Susan Hinchcliffe and her team have bled Bradford Council dry by wasting money on glorified white elephant projects, non-statutory schemes and their gross mismanagement of children’s services.

"Cllr Hinchcliffe’s attempt to blame everyone but herself for leading the council to bankruptcy isn’t fooling anyone.”

He added that if the council wanted to save money, they could do it in other ways, adding: “Perhaps they could start by scrapping ill-thought through schemes that the vast majority of people do not want - like their ridiculous town-wide 20 mph scheme in Ilkley in which they plan to plaster the town with speed humps, costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands.

"But no, instead they plan to close Ilkley’s Tip and the Tip at Sugden End in the Worth Valley which will lead to an increase in fly tipping. They plan to increase parking charges which will hamper local businesses, implement parking charges at Ilkley’s Lido and look to close local sporting and leisure facilities, all negatively impacting our children’s health and wellbeing.”

Mr Moore insisted it was wrong to blame the government for the hole in council finances. He said: "It wasn’t the government who decided to spend £15m on the Kirkgate Centre whilst at the same time failing catastrophically to protect our children; it wasn’t the government who decided to get involved in the £35 million One City Park white elephant project whilst attempting to slash Keighley and Ilkley’s statutory services; and it wasn’t the government who decided to splash nearly £200,000 on staff gift cards as the District sunk into financial ruin.

"But it won’t stop there - they will then look to close our libraries and other key services - all as a result of their financial mismanagement.

"I won’t accept these absurd proposals as why should we - and I will campaign like there is no tomorrow to stop them.

"It simply is not fair that residents across Keighley, Ilkley, Silsden, the Worth Valley and our wider area who contribute the most already to Bradford Council through Council Tax - but get the least back - are now going to be expected to pick up the tap for Labour’s steer incompetence by having to pay up to a 5 percent increase in Council Tax.

"Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Keighley and Ilkley wants to tie us even closer to Bradford Council and continues to endorse Susan Hinchcliffe - but I take a robust view - and will stand up for our area.

"The case to take Keighley and Ilkley out of Bradford Council control and form our own unitary authority which puts local priorities first, has never been stronger. And as Keighley and Ilkley's MP, that is exactly what I will continue to fight for."

John Grogan, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Keighley and Ilkley said: "The scale of the cuts facing Bradford Council is shocking but not surprising given the Government’s indifference to local councils particularly in the North of England. In Yorkshire alone the Tories have cut nearly £1 billion in local government funding since 2015 whilst treating the likes of Surrey much more favourably.

“It is time Bradford’s two Conservative MPs put aside party politics and demand that the Chancellor fund councils like Bradford fairly.

"Ultimately the fault lies in Downing Street not City Hall as councils both Tory and Labour around the country are facing similar pressures on their budgets. There is another way to run our country.

“Councils did not routinely go bust under the last Labour government and doctors did not go on prolonged strikes. 2024 will almost certainly be general election year and the the future of all our libraries, leisure centres, swimming pools, recycling centres and youth clubs whether in Keighley and Ilkley, in Bradford, in Yorkshire or in our proud country as a whole, will be on the ballot paper.”