Four more Bradford communities look set to be given greater powers to boost regeneration and improve their neighbourhoods.

Next week's meeting of Bradford Council's executive will be asked to allow the urban village action plan to be expanded to cover Wibsey, Heaton, Low Moor and Riddlesden.

The scheme has already been piloted in seven areas - Wyke, Queensbury, Thornton, Eccleshill, Idle, Oakworth and Baildon - with each one receiving £75,000 in assistance and improvements.

The latest batch of communities have been chosen because they are neither inner-city nor rural, which means they are unable to access significant regeneration funding.

As part of the scheme, residents will receive help and £25,000 in cash from the Council to help plan how to safeguard and improve their communities.

They can then use that plan to get further funding from the Council, the government and other sources.

Improvements could include activities for youngsters, village clean-ups or traffic calming measures.

Residents of Heaton, who have already gone some of the way to regenerating their area themselves through the Heaton Woods Trust and the community graveyard project, welcomed the news.

Margaret Gray, a co-ordinator on the cemetery restoration scheme, said: "I would like to see a lot of the original history of the buildings restored and the younger generation to be involved.

"I would also like it to be a proper community again with activities where the village could get together - I would love to see some of the tradition coming back."

Councillor Mohammad Massood (Cons, Heaton) said local groups deserved to be closely involved in the area's regeneration. "It gives them the opportunity to have a controlling input - they know what the village needs and what will hurt it because they have the life-experience of the area," he said.

"The perception that Heaton is affluent and does not need support is wrong. We need to arrest any decline and enhance and sustain it for the future. This is just the beginning of the good news for Heaton."

And his colleague Councillor Stanley King (Cons, Heaton) believes Heaton's action groups should take much of the credit for it winning urban village status. "They have created the public awareness about what can be done, and the public enthusiasm for doing it," he said.

A total of £1.22 million has been set aside for the Urban Village scheme, with Bradford Council providing £950,000 and £270,000 from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

The executive will decide on the future urban village status of Wibsey, Heaton, Low Moor and Riddlesden when it meets on Tuesday at City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.