It is encouraging news that the development spotlight has now been put on that area of Bradford known as Goitside. Although there is a long way to go, the decision to bring in conservationists to draw up a master plan for an historic but neglected wedge of the city between Thornton Road and Westgate is at least a start.

This part of Bradford has a lot of potential. Although the Godwin Street end of it is thriving thanks to the success of Sunwin House, there is too much of the rest of it which has been allowed to fall into disrepair - particularly the warehouses and former mills which stretch along Thornton Road towards the lower end of Grattan Road.

Once this was a thriving part of the Bradford wool industry, with Bradford Beck initially running through it as an open stream which was long ago channelled below ground. Now, though, it verges on dereliction and makes an unattractive gateway to the city.

The idea of regenerating it to complement Yorkshire Co-operative's plans for a £20 million development on land around Sunwin House is imaginative. The chairman of the business partnership responsible for commissioning the plan says he envisages a mixed use for the area, possibly with housing and an urban village. It is already part-way there with existing housing and pubs around Chain Street and Grattan Road.

If the plan goes ahead - and it is to be hoped that it does - there is potential to turn Goitside into an area second only to Little Germany as an important asset close to the city centre.