David Ward has called for the council to think again about the future of the Odeon in the city centre following the closure of Yorkshire Forward.

Yorkshire Forward, the regional development quango, is to be wound down by 2012, to be replaced with local enterprise partnerships.

David wants to ask Councillor David Green, in his role as portfolio holder for regeneration, if he would reconsider the future of the Odeon. He said: "What's changed is the possible ownership of the building with Yorkshire Forward on its last legs.

Bradford East MP David Ward has told a constituent that ran up a £60,000 legal aid bill trying to stay in a house that is too big for him to "get real and get on with his life".

As reported in the Telegraph and Argus, the constituent has fought social landlord Incommunities for three years in the courts to remain in the three bedroom-house in West Bowling. During that time he has not paid any rent. Mr. Hussain had initially moved into the house alongside his wife and children, but his marriage broke up and the joint-tenancy he had with his wife was legally ended at her request, leaving him no legal right to stay in the house after she and the children moved out.

David Ward has been nominated as vice-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Non-Profit Making Members Clubs. A member of Idle Working Men's Club, he will work to support and improve clubs across the country.

The Club and Institute Union said membership of the Parliamentary Group had dwindled since the General Election and has asked clubs to bolster its ranks by letting MPs see the role they play.

David Ward has cautiously welcomed the scrapping of Yorkshire Forward, the regional development quango, and it's replacement with local enterprise partnerships.

David said, "We must now see how the new partnerships will work and operate and ensure there is a real development to a local level. What the new local enterprise partnerships must not become is huge entities with several hundred staff. The idea should be to bring individual groups together in partnership but it should not become a new quango in its own right."

Bradford East's MP secured a debate in Parliament to raise the links between deprivation and low educational attainment, an issue he highlighted in his first speech in the House of Commons. Many educational measures, he argued, start far too late in life.

He told MPs of his experiences as a school governor, where in one instance he saw children being directed away from books by their mother: "They are only books, you do not want them". He also told MPs of research conducted by Kansas University into the number of words spoken by parents to their children.

Labour MP Gerry Sutcliffe has called for a debate regarding the legalisation of prostitution, proposing a number "controlled zones" where sex workers could operate more safely in the wake of the killings of three vice girls in the city.

David Ward MP said: "It's a complex issue very much like sex education and legalisation of drugs. By discussing it you don't want to be condoning it or making it more likely to happen but it definitely needs debating."

David Ward has used his maiden speech in Parliament to warn against the erroneous view that the cycle of deprivation could be broken by improving the educational outcome of children in deprived communities.

Bradford has one of the fastest-growing populations in the country, and one of the youngest with one in four people in Bradford East under 25.

Bradford Council has come under criticism for refusing to show World Cup games on the big screen in Centenary Square.

David Ward said: "City centre businesses have been under the cosh for a long time now and were looking forward to a much-needed boost during the World Cup."

"This is just an own goal in terms of missing out on this fantastic tournament that everyone is getting excited about."

David Ward MP has spoken out against a junk food ban.

Rob Rees, chairman of the School Food Trust, an independent charity wants pupils to be banned from leaving school premises at lunchtimes to stop them buying fast food in an attempt to improve the quality of food consumed in schools.

David Ward, acting education spokesman for Bradford Council's Liberal Democrat group, said pupils should be trusted to make their own decisions.