A job scheme in Manningham and Girlington has been hailed a success.

Levels of youth unemployment have fallen from 36 per cent to 25 per cent in the areas since an innovative scheme which advised and guided young people was set up.

The jobs@Manningham project has received the credit in a report by the Manningham and Girlington Single Regeneration Budget partnership, which has funded it.

SRB partnership chairman Councillor Stanley King said: "We need to give young people in an area like this hope for the future."

The scheme has been taken on and extended district-wide by the Invest in Bradford project because of its success.

Invest in Bradford is a partnership made up of Bradford Council, the Chamber of Commerce and Job Centre Plus.

The section covering Manningham and Girlington has been retained, and is based at Girlington Community Centre working with the Jobs Plus initiative.

The success of jobs@Manningham, which worked closely with the employment service, is highlighted in the final year's delivery plan, published by the SRB partnership.

High youth unemployment has been identified as a main reason for the riots which shook Manningham in 1994, and the SRB scheme aims to improve educational achievements and get young people into jobs.

The report says since the last riots in Bradford in 2001, the area has experienced a period of calm.

It says former industrial land continues to be redeveloped and sales of sites attract considerable interest.

The report says the whole of the £9 million allocated by the Government to Manningham and Girlington from its Single Regeneration Budget has been allocated to 143 projects which have been completed or are continuing.

The SRB funds have also acted as a lever to draw in other outside funding totalling £24.199million.

Bradford Council's executive member for regeneration, Councillor Simon Cooke, said: "One of the big issues in Manningham and Girlington has been getting young people into real jobs and jobs@Manningham has been a great success. "