The City Centre Growth Zone has been an unrivalled success in terms of encouraging a thriving city centre in Bradford.

Through a variety of projects it has breathed new life into areas of Bradford that were at risk of becoming run-down and ignored - the prime example being the revitalisation of the North Parade area.

With the Broadway shopping centre due to open this year, it has never been more important to ensure that the rest of the city centre is given as much of a boost as possible.

While the Westfield project is, of course, vital to Bradford city centre's regeneration, its success should not be at the expense of other areas of the city centre, and the Growth Zone project has gone a long way to ensuring this does not happen.

In real terms, it has helped to create or safeguard hundreds of jobs and, through offering business rebates for city centre firms, has encouraged more companies to stay and grow in the city centre rather than move away.

It has, in short, been a breath of fresh air for Bradford, and the only downside is that many aspects of the project had a limited life and are due to end this year.

It is vital that the work that has begun is built upon and continued, and while much of the funding that was available was for a finite period, it would be fantastic if new sources of cash could be found to extend the Growth Zone project or create a similar initiative.

It's been a great job so far but the battle to bring Bradford city centre up is not yet over - here's hoping that a new phase of regeneration will not be long in coming.