It is a great shame that political differences seem to be getting in the way of the very important job of planning Bingley's future.

The row between Shipley Labour MP Chris Leslie, chairman of the Bingley Town Centre Partnership, and Councillor David Herdson, Conservative chairman of Bradford Council's Shipley Area Panel, will do nothing to encourage those many Bingley people who are concerned for the future of their town and want to see it fight back once the relief road is built.

They are bound to wonder what hope there is if the politicians who are supposed to be aiding their campaign are unable to agree over whether or not a public meeting should be held in an attempt to clear the air.

Mr Leslie says he thinks the meeting is important to meet demands for greater accountability and to give the people of Bingley a say in how the Town Centre Partnership is constituted. Coun Herdson, on the other hand, says he believes that a public meeting might prove so fractious as to damage the partnership's credibility in the eyes of "people of good faith".

Isn't a degree of fractiousness the price that sometimes has to be paid for openness in a democracy? Feelings have been running high in Bingley for a long time, chiefly over whether or not the relief road should be built, and will take some while to settle down.

But now the road is going to be built, and Bingley will have a good chance of rising again. It will have a better one, though, if key players in its revival are seen to be pulling together.