The first elections to the newly created City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council were held on 10 May 1973, with the entirety of the 93 seat council - three seats for each of the 31 wards - up for vote. The Local Government Act 1972 stipulated that the elected members were to shadow and eventually take over from the predecessor corporation on 1 April 1974. The order in which the councillors were elected dictated their term serving, with third-place candidates serving two years and up for re-election in 1975, second-placed three years expiring in 1976 and 1st-placed five years until 1978.
As well as replacing the County Borough of Bradford, the new council included:
The election resulted in the Conservatives gaining control.[1] [2]
This result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the Council after the elections:
| valign=top colspan="2" style="width: 230px" | Party | valign=top style="width: 30px" | New council |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservatives | 53 | ||
| Labour | 31 | ||
| Liberals | 9 | ||
| Total | 93 | ||
| Working majority | |||