Three political parties are coming together to share the helm of a committee that has a key say on spending in a Bradford District constituency.
The Chair position of the Shipley Area Committee will be shared between three Cllrs of very different political leanings for the 2025/26 year.
The committee decides on issues such as where local highways funding should be spent and what local groups receive Council support.
The role will be shared between Cllr Kevin Warnes (Green, Shipley) Cllr Paul Sullivan (Cons, Bingley Rural) and Cllr Marcus Dearden, a Bingley Cllr who stood down from the Labour party earlier this year and now sites as an independent.
They said the move is in response to the Council’s leading Labour group “interfering” in the committee.
A statement from the trio said: “Cllr Dearden (Independent, Bingley) will chair this key local committee for the first half of the municipal year, with Cllr Sullivan (Conservative, Bingley Rural) taking over the chair in November for the second half of the year. Outgoing chair Cllr Kevin Warnes (Green, Shipley) will serve as Deputy Chair throughout the year.
“We believe our positive cross-party collaboration is the right response to unacceptable interference from the Council’s controlling Labour leadership during the last municipal year, and will help us to best serve our residents across the Shipley constituency in these exceptionally challenging times.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has approached Bradford Council for a comment.
