Khan told the meeting Labour also now supported reopening the tip, but said the council’s financial circumstances had changed because of additional funding from the Labour government.
“It doesn’t have to be one or the other,” Khan said.
“It’s a political choice, so you can do both.”
Place said Reform had not engaged in “political point-scoring” since taking power and had focused on sorting out the financial “basket case” it inherited.
Responding to Khan’s point, he said: “Yes, it is a political choice, of course it is, because we have no other choice”, adding his option was “to help Bradford and particularly the people of Keighley at this time”.
When Labour led the council, the Conservatives had already proposed removing the same £400,000 arts and culture allocation and putting money towards reopening Sugden End.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Conservative chief whip Geoff Winnard said scarce resources should be concentrated on “getting the basics right” before spending on “the more frivolous nice-to-have extras”.
While dismissing any suggestion the Conservatives were operating as a “soft coalition” with Reform, Winnard added: “My colleagues have always made clear we’ll support the executive when they’re coming up with sensible pragmatic decisions which are in the interests of our residents.”
