Bradford Councillor
Pickles was first elected to Bradford Council in 1979. Between 1988 and 1990, he served as leader of the Conservative group on the council. In September 1988 the Conservative Party gained control by using the Conservative mayor's casting vote to become the only inner-city council to be controlled by the Conservatives.
When Bradford Council was hung, Pickles opted to break the agreement that the position of Lord Mayor is rotated between the parties, when he put a Conservative mayor in place again. This effectively gave the Conservatives a majority due to the Lord Mayor's casting vote. To do this, they also broke the tradition that the Lord Mayor kept the status quo.
Whilst at Bradford, Pickles announced a five-year plan to cut the council's budget by £50m, reduce the workforce by a third, privatise services and undertake council departmental restructures, many of which proved controversial. A book, The Pickles Papers by Tony Grogan, was written about this period in Pickles's life.
Read more about this topic: Eric Pickles
Famous quotes containing the word bradford:
“I feel all dead inside. I’m backed up in a dark corner and I don’t know who’s hitting me!”
—Jay Dratler, U.S. screenwriter, Bernard Schoenfeld, and Henry Hathaway. Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens)