New proposals to tackle congestion in the Aire Valley are to be welcomed. Details are yet to be thrashed out but the general principles are right: that short-to-medium-term measures to ease the problem should be followed by major schemes within ten years to resolve it permanently.

It is absolutely right that some of the returns from the sale of the airport should be diverted to tackling one of the biggest single obstacles to the growth of the district's economy. The Aire Valley has enormous potential to become a powerhouse for the regeneration of the district and for creating new jobs but it is currently blighted by traffic congestion which prevents the efficient flow of goods, services and workers along its length.

A further blight is the threat of its few remaining areas of green belt being concreted over to make way for many of the tens of thousands of new homes which the Government wants to be built and which we now discover is likely to be an even greater figure than previously calculated because of the huge rise in immigration from the former eastern bloc countries.

This process should have taken place 20 years ago. Successive governments have failed to understand what residents have long known: that the Aire Valley is being choked to death and that increased housebuilding can only make the situation worse.

Bradford Council must grasp the nettle now and do all in its power to force other authorities in the county to understand how their failure to allocate funds from the regional transport strategy could impact on the growth of the whole Yorkshire economy.