The Bradford Bulls are expected to agree a deal which will result in a long-awaited multi-million pound improvement scheme at Odsal Stadium.

The club will be offered a one-off payment of £4.6 million from Bradford Council which will end a decade-long saga where dreams of redeveloping the run-down stadium have continually collapsed.

It could enable the Super League champions to draw in external funding to improve their traditional home which they would continue to lease on a peppercorn rent from the Council which owns it.

But today a senior councillor questioned where the authority could find the money to buy out a long-term agreement made in 1986 and due to end in 2019 which requires the Council to pay £337,000 a year to the club.

Councillor Ian Greenwood, leader of the Council's Labour group said: "I do not know where this money has come from.

"I fully support the Bulls and I think we should do everything we can to help them. But I can't see how this could have been spirited from thin air. Maybe it could have been used in keeping old people's homes open."

Intensive negotiations have taken place between the Council and Bulls since Leeds-based Sterling Capitol decided not to go ahead with its plans for a £60 million development which would have given the Bulls a world class stadium.

The club had already moved out temporarily to share Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium to allow the development to take place.

But Sterling Capitol pulled out after the Government ordered a public inquiry into the planning application.

Bulls chairman Chris Caisley told the Council they still wanted to return to Odsal from Valley Parade because the fans wanted them to return home.

And an agreement made last year between the Council, Sterling Capitol and the Bulls enabling the club to play temporarily to Valley Parade would also finish as part of the new deal.

The Council's executive committee will be asked by chief executive Ian Stewart to agree the package when it meets next Tuesday.

Mr Stewart said a report would go to the committee about the source of the funding.

Mr Stewart said today: "If accepted these proposals will draw a line under the Odsal situation and create an opportunity for Bradford Bulls to develop Odsal Stadium in a way which suits them and their fans.

"Given the history of Odsal Stadium this is a sensible long term solution for the Council and Bradford Bulls which enables them to plan for the future with confidence."

Mr Caisley said his talks with Mr Stewart had been time-consuming but constructive.

"If these negotiations can be concluded to the satisfaction of the Bulls and the Council we will have achieved a result satisfactory to both parties and the community as a whole.

"We shall also have given ourselves an opportunity to improve a stadium which is known throughout the country and overseas as the home of Bradford Bulls.

"I should like to thank the Council for its willingness to seek a long term solution to the Odsal Stadium issue.

"My objective throughout has been to deliver a solution which accords with the overwhelming wishes of Bradford Bulls fans who have made it clear they want the club to return to Odsal Stadium.

"It has been a difficult time for the staff of the club and our supporters and I should like to thank them for their patience. I hope that it will shortly be rewarded."

If the package is agreed by councillors the Council will still go ahead with £600,000 of health and safety work to enable the Bulls to return to the stadium next season. The contract is expected to be awarded next week.

The Bulls will retain the sports ground and almost the same area as the club has under existing terms.

Government regeneration agency Yorkshire Forward is expected to agree funding towards work to remedy contamination at a landfill tip on the site.

That and the new deal with the Bulls would leave the Council free to dispose of other parts of the site, possibly for housing.

Sam Grundy Press officer of the Bulls Independent Supporters Association said: "We hope it could lead to a return to Odsal. It is an offer on the table and we will need to wait until the executive committee."

Bradford City Football Club Supporters' Trust chairman, Chris Hawkridge, said the pay off of the agreement was a totally separate situation from Bradford City's financial crisis and the only concerns they had had in the past were the Council's "subsidy" of the Rugby League club.

"Now they will have to stand on their own feet like Bradford City do," he said.