A Shipley bypass is one of five essential "priority projects" in the masterplan for Airedale.

The Shipley Eastern Link Road would link Frizinghall to Baildon, bypassing Shipley, and is seen as key to helping the town's regeneration.

The priorities were highlighted by Mike Osborne of consultant Arup, which has drafted the masterplan, at the vision's launch at Dalton Mills in Keighley yesterday.

Further traffic congestion would be alleviated by a tunnel to connect the link road, which would be completed by 2012, and Canal Road to the A650 at Nab Wood. The other immediate priorities are:

lRenovating Keighley Railway Station

lA state-of-the-art hotel with leisure facilities at the current Keighley College site in North Street supported by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward

lDeveloping the Bingley Technology Business Park on the former auction market

lAn Advanced Digital Institute in Shipley to drive Airedale's economy.

The five schemes are seen as key to the transformation of Airedale into a world-leading centre for digital communications by 2020.

Mr Osborne, Arup's project director for the masterplan, said more than £200 million of private sector investment was in place and more than £150 million of public sector investment in education and healthcare had been pledged to help deliver the plan.

Other ambitious proposals for better living and working in the Aire Valley include restaurants and cafes in Bingley; flattening Shipley's clock tower and indoor market for a mixed-use development; a rail link to Leeds Bradford Airport and transforming Bingley Town Hall into a hotel and conference centre.

Councillor Matt Palmer (Con, Wharfedale) welcomed the vision. "The rail link would be invaluable. Nobody could object to that," he said.

Councillor Robin Owens (Con, Bingley) said: "It's exciting and if it gives us a coherent plan it's definitely needed." Eileen Sinclair, of Bingley Civic Trust, welcomed the masterplan but was concerned about public reaction to some of its proposals. "It needs money and the right people at the right time to come in," she said. "What the reaction will be to a hotel at the town hall in Bingley and building in Jubilee Gardens I just don't know."

Councillor Allan Rhodes, Mayor of Keighley, said: "To place the whole of the Aire Valley together and think as one is tremendous and can only be positive."

Andrew Mallinson, chairman of the Keighley area committee, said: "It was a fantastic presentation and a lot of work has been done but now there's going to have to be a huge amount of work to push all this forward."

The masterplan was commissioned by the private sector-led Airedale Partnership.

Regional development agency Yorkshire Forward provided £475,000 of funding to help put it together.

The scheme follows architect Will Alsop's ambitious masterplan for Bradford, which was unveiled in 2003, and which Arup is developing further.