The contractors have moved in at Odsal stadium at last. There have been many, many occasions over the last few years when we thought we might never be able to report that good news.

It has been a long, rough, obstacle-packed road since it was first announced that Bradford was to get a £200 million superdome with a retractable cover. That hugely-ambitious plan eventually turned out to be what many Bradfordians suspected it of being from the very start: pie in the sky.

While the stadium stood empty and unused, two other, more realistic schemes also collapsed, the most recent - which involved a combined world-class sports ground and Tesco superstore - after the Government decided to call in the planning application for a public inquiry.

Following that disappointment the Council ended its contract with the Bulls by paying them £4.6million compensation in preference to an annual payment of £337,000 over each of the next 17 years. This financially-prudent move earned it a lot of unjustified criticism - criticism which would have been better directed at those who had entered into this contract in the first place.

It also cleared the way for the Bulls to go it alone. That is now happening. Compared to the original, grandiose superdome scheme, the proposed development is relatively modest. However, news that work on it is starting is a signal to sceptical Bradfordians and the wider world that Odsal is back in business - although the fact that there appears to be no provision for speedway in the plans suggests that the controversy might not yet be over.