It is deeply disappointing that more than three months after the event, Bradford Council is still talking in terms of setting up an inquiry into the causes of this summer's riots.

The scrutiny committee set to examine the cost of such an inquiry and what form it might take has been asked to report its findings to the executive committee in December.

That means, presumably, that five months after the riots took place, the committee might just about be getting round to making a decision about setting up a process which, if they're very lucky, might be near reporting its findings sometime towards the back end of 2002.

And that will happen only if the inquiry takes two-thirds of the time the report into the 1996 disturbances took to produce.

It would be a shame to dignify such goings-on with the term "farce".

As we said in our first leading article after the events of July 7: "There must be no more reports and no more inquiries. The Race Review document due to be launched this week is certain to identify many of the issues spelled out in the Commission report of 1996. Hopefully, it will give some more concrete guidance on the way ahead. But the truth is we all know what needs to be done and we must set about it with a vengeance."

That plea seems to have been largely ignored by Bradford Council which seems intent on dragging out the hand-wringing and the angst for as long as possible.

The committee's chairman, Councillor Chris Greaves, is correct to say we must get it right this time - but this approach is not the way to do it and it will be seen for what it surely is: hopeless indecision and prevarication.

The plain fact is, we don't need another inquiry: with the exception of a few specifics, perhaps, it won't tell us any more than we know already.

And it isn't about a "quick fix solution" either: Bradford has had six years to come up with a plan of action and we're still waiting.

Instead of a committee to talk about the terms of some distant inquiry, the Council should have set up a committee a week after Lord Ouseley's report to examine its findings and recommend positive and detailed action. And that action should already be underway and seen to be underway instead of being "dealt with by a team of dedicated officers" where there is a danger of it disappearing without trace.

Racial tension in Bradford is clearly the single most important issue facing this city and it should be at the top of the Council's agenda right now.

It's time our local politicians stood up to be counted and started putting some serious sweat into thinking through Bradford's problems and how to tackle them.

Of course we don't have all the answers and, of course, there will be many difficult decisions ahead. But they won't become any less difficult by putting them off until tomorrow.