Conservatives are split over the future of West Midlands regional government, with a damaging rift developing between cities and shires.

Tories in Birmingham and the Black Country want to abolish or scale back dramatically the West Midlands Leaders’ Board – a quango which gives a voice to the region’s 33 councils.

They argue that the board, which employs 35 people and costs £2.3 million a year to run, has achieved little and is a waste of money.

But Conservatives representing shire and district councils say the board is their only collective voice to Whitehall and should remain in place at least until the future of local government, city regions and regional development agencies becomes clear.

The dispute is the latest instalment in a 36-year row that has bubbled away since local government reorganisation in 1974.

At stake is the matter of how a region as disconnected as the West Midlands – taking in the Birmingham conurbation, Coventry to the east and the outlying counties of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire – can best work together as a single entity.

The campaign to scrap the board is being led by Tory-controlled Walsall, Dudley and Wolverhampton councils with tacit support from the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in Birmingham and Labour-controlled Sandwell.

Walsall Council leader Mike Bird said meetings of the 27-strong Leaders’ Board executive committee were so unproductive that “I lose the will to live”.

Describing the board as “absolute cobblers”, Coun Bird said there could be no justification, given the economic crisis and the pressure on public sector budgets, for continuing to employ so many staff.

The quango began life as a replacement for the West Midlands Regional Assembly and has also taken on the duties of the West Midlands Local Government Association, which acts as an employers’ organisation for the region’s councils.

One of its main tasks was to monitor housing delivery and planning issues arising from the Regional Spatial Strategy, which has now been abolished by the coalition Government. It also scrutinises the work of regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.

Coun Bird added: “I have been in local government for many years and I know I am wasting my time by going to meetings of this board.”

He revealed that Tory leaders of the West Midlands metropolitan councils held private talks to plot the board’s downfall. “There is a move under way to advise the staff that they might not be around in the medium term,” Coun Bird added.

If the board is to survive it should be scaled back with only two or three staff, he argued. And in a blast at his rural colleagues, Coun Bird added: “If they want the Leaders’ Board to continue in its present form, they can pay for it.”

The board is financed partly through a Government grant, although Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has already cut the funding. The majority of the board’s revenue – £1.1 million – comes from the 33 councils, with Birmingham making the largest contribution of £250,000.

A spokesman for Birmingham City Council said it was unclear, given the abolition of the spatial strategy and changes to the status of Advantage West Midlands, what the purpose of the Leaders’ Board was. The council wants an “urgent review” into the board’s future.

The Conservative leader of Warwickshire County Council, Alan Farnell, believes it would be premature to get rid of the Leaders’ Board when the future organisation of local government at regional and sub-regional level is uncertain.

Coun Farnell urged Mr Pickles to make an early decision about Enterprise Partnerships – business-led organisations working with local councils to replace regional development agencies.

It’s likely that Warwickshire, Coventry and possibly Solihull will move towards partnership status, giving them a powerful lobbying voice for economic regeneration at Government level. Birmingham and the Black Country councils want to follow the same route.