The married father-of-two who has arrived to look with fresh eyes at Bradford today gave the message: "It's looking great, and it's going to be even better."

Martin Garratt - who will co-ordinate Bradford Vision - comes to the district after six years with chemists giant Boots, as its head of property research and town planning.

The Preston-born high-flyer answered a daunting advert for a chief executive who would have "nowhere to hide" and was an "influencer, persuader and achiever".

Mr Garratt's £60,000 a year salary is funded by the Vision partnership, which includes Bradford Council, Bradford University, Bradford and Shipley Colleges, the Chamber of Commerce, West Yorkshire Police, Bradford Breakthrough and Bradford Health Authority.

The massive job set by the new organisation is to drive ahead the 2020 Vision, a blueprint drawn up to take the district into the 21st century as a better place to live, work and enjoy leisure.

At least some meetings of the new Bradford Vision are expected to be open to the press, and Council leader councillor Margaret Eaton has pledged more openness as it fulfils its remit.

The post was advertised twice before the partners were satisfied they had found their man, and now the 38-year-old is out and about in the district meeting as many people as possible and discussing the future role of the organisation.

He said: "I have been made to feel very welcome and I am listening to people's views about what is important and how they see Bradford. The key thing people want to know about is who will do what in the organisation.

"I have seen many good news stories as I have gone about Bradford - things like the new accident and emergency department at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

"There are very many 'wins' in the district, but they need co-ordination. We need to all speak with one voice in the culture of working together. There is some really good work, but it's a bit disjointed and we need to bring it all together.

"If we do that, there is great potential in the future to secure other resources from central Government and Europe and even further investment from the private sector.

"It is very important to have equality of representation from all sectors on Bradford Vision. The 2020 Vision is the overriding document we have to strive to achieve over the next 20 years. In the short term we have to get clarity about who sits on what and who does what, speak in a single voice in the Bradford district, then look at individual projects."

The Bradford Vision partnership is the former Bradford Congress, set up by MP Gerry Sutcliffe when he was Council leader in 1994. The organisation brought together bids for Government and European funding, but its role was generally unclear and it was seen as a "toothless" organisation with no decision-making powers.

Congress - made up of the district's leading organisations - acted promptly and efficiently when the Government refused to hold an independent investigation into what lay behind the two nights of violence in Manningham in 1995 which brought unwelcome national prominence to a district working hard on its regeneration.

Chaired by John Barratt, who spearheaded the high-profile inquiry into social services in Hackney, it concluded that young people in the troubled streets were jobless and had little do. Its findings concluded some councillors did little to help and residents felt isolated and forgotten. Congress was then involved in the successful application for £9 million from the Government's Single Regeneration Budget for Manningham and Girlington. But, despite its successes, it was felt by some as a "secret society" meeting privately and with a low public profile.