The people of Bradford and district are well used to plans, masterplans and schemes, and there might well be raised eyebrows at the naming of this latest initiative as the Leeds City Region Development Programme.

But none of that should detract from the fact that this is one of the biggest and most important blueprints ever to be laid out for this part of Yorkshire.

Traditional local rivalries have been put aside to concentrate on providing a joined-up programme to deliver the housing, business and transport initiatives to take the 11 local authorities forward into the future.

Recent demographic studies have pointed to an explosion in population in the Bradford district over the next few decades, and it is vital that the infrastructure is in place to cope with it.

Better transport links are needed to cope with the growing numbers of road, rail and bus users, more job opportunities will be required for these extra people and they will, of course, need plentiful - and affordable - housing.

It makes sense for authorities to pool their resources and knowledge to best achieve these targets.

But it is, of course, vital that the Bradford district retains its own unique identity and that the scheme does not become back-door regionalisation which takes power and decision-making away from the individual districts.

If that balance between integration and identity can be found, then this blueprint could well be the scheme that signals a much brighter future for Bradford and its immediate neighbours.