Appeals by some Bradford rioters over the lengths of their sentences will go ahead in London next week.

Fifteen cases are listed over two days at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday and Thursday.

Lord Justice Rose and two High Court judges will preside over the hearings.

They will decide if the sentences imposed were excessive or the correct ones.

More than 300 police officers were injured and £27 million of damage was caused during the riots which broke out in July 2001. Charges in the aftermath included riot, violent disorder, carrying offensive weapons, wounding and theft.

More than 100 offenders have been jailed - many for terms of more than four years which accompany a charge of riot.

Many families and supporters felt they were excessive.

London-based lawyer Imran Khan has co-ordinated the legal battle. The families set up the Fair Justice For All campaign and they were the subject of a BBC documentary called Trouble Up North.

One campaigner Sal Lal said: "This is what we have been waiting for, for so long.

"The families are really pleased and feel as though things are moving on."

Her brother Mohammed Aris, 28, was jailed last March for five years three months.

She added: "We want justice. Of course, we condemn the riots but we believe there should be fairer sentences.

"The evidence against my brother was throwing stones.

"Five years for someone with no previous conviction is too long. If they had known they would be so long then they would not have handed themselves in."

However, the Crown Prosecution Service, which imposed the charge of riot on offenders, has always insisted it was the right charge and the sentences were justified.

Judge Stephen Gullick, sentencing one of the rioters to five years, said: " The people of this city are entitled to look to the law for protection and the courts to punish those who behaved so violently and viciously. Those who choose to take part in activities of this type must understand they do so at their peril."