The suggestion that congestion charges could be brought to Bradford should set alarm bells clanging violently in the city. Bradford has enough problems attracting people to live, work and shop in the city centre already without asking them to pay for the privilege of trailing round in search of adequate cheap parking so they can enjoy the pleasure of seeking out goods in what every local person acknowledges is a below-par shopping experience.

If that situation is ever going to change we need more people to come in and want to spend time here for shopping and leisure. Making it harder and dearer for them to get here via any form of transport would be potentially disastrous.

The South and West Yorkshire Multi-Modal Study apparently comes to the conclusion that local authorities can't build their way out of traffic chaos, which would be a reasonable assumption if the roads system was good enough in the first place.

Bradford's roads problem isn't really in the city centre, where traffic is comparatively light. It is in the roads leading to the city centre and those carrying traffic past the major conurbation.

It is ridiculous to suggest that a major West Bradford by-pass as well a very substantial widening of the A650 and other routes to Leeds would not ease the traffic problems around the city.

In short, the district still needs some massive road building hand-in-hand with a huge central regeneration. Only after that, with people wanting to flock to the city centre, could Bradford afford to seriously contemplate congestion charges, and by that point we might actually all be willing to welcome the idea.