A PARLIAMENTARY petition has been launched calling for Leeds and Bradford councils to be broken up.

Yorkshire Party candidate Bob Buxton wants to see the two authorities split into smaller entities - reversing the merging of district councils in 1974.

His petition has gained approval to be published from the Parliamentary Petitions Committee. If it reaches 10,000 signatures the government will have to respond. At 100,000 signatures the petition would be considered for debate in Parliament

Dr Buxton, who will stand for the Yorkshire Party in Guiseley and Rawdon in May's Local Elections, believes local people's views are too often ignored on greenbelt protection, providing cheaper housing on brownfield sites, improving transport and modernising infrastructure.

He said: "Smaller councils would be accountable to more localised voters. For example, Labour holds a majority on Leeds City Council despite having no elected councillors in Aireborough, where I live; therefore, they govern without our votes - should we disagree with the City Council, we cannot vote them out. On the doorstep, people have told me year after year that they want the greenbelt preserved and need better infrastructure to support the new housing we already have. Yet greenbelt is still under threat in the revised Site Allocation Plan, public transport and congestion are appalling and we have too few schools, GPs and dentists. With smaller district councils, each community may achieve its ambitions through democracy - that's surely how it's meant to work."

He said an Act of Parliament could restore councils which had existed before 1974, such as Aireborough, Horsforth, Ilkley, Keighley, Morley, Pudsey, Shipley and Wharfedale, allowing smaller communities to take back control of their housing and infrastructure development. Dr Buxton's petition can be read and signed online at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/211880.

In his petition he says: "Leeds and Bradford City Councils are too large to focus of individual communities. On greenbelt protection, providing cheaper housing on brownfield sites, transport and modernising infrastructure, local people's views are often ignored. Smaller councils would be accountable to more localised voters."