A pioneering public consultation process which shaped the proposed changes to Saltaire roundabout should be a blueprint to future major planning processes in Bradford.

The approach was recommended to serve as an “exemplar” by Bradford Council’s environment and waste management overview and scrutiny committee at a meeting tonight.

Councillors spent 45 minutes discussing the £3.3 million traffic management scheme for Saltaire, which includes changing the problem roundabout into a traffic-light-managed junction.

A working party made up of Council officers, ward councillors, Metro, businessmen, residents, an architectural lecturer and representatives of Saltaire Primary School and Saltaire Village Society spent months devising 17 options for addressing traffic issues in the village.

At the meeting, when the committee recommended that the executive approves the final scheme, councillors praised the hard work of everyone who had got the plans to this stage – despite a £1 million cut to funding from the West Yorkshire Strategic Programme of Schemes (WYSPS) for local transport last year.

Speaking outside the meeting, Robert Gelder, the Council’s transportation development manager, said the WYSPS funding will be available from April 1, when design work should start. Traffic calming measures would be introduced before the roundabout is replaced in about 2012/13, he said.

The executive will consider the plan on Friday.