Hopes of an early start on a £110 million business park which could bring thousands of jobs to the district were dashed today as Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott ordered a public inquiry into the scheme.

The business park - including offices, a hotel, B&Q superstore and 45 houses - is expected to create at least 5,000 jobs.

It would swallow up fields at West Bowling Golf Club and put its 300-year-old listed clubhouse on a roundabout.

National conservation watchdog English Heritage has said it is concerned about the setting.

The Council's regulatory and appeals committee referred the scheme to the Depart-ment of Transport, Local Government and the Regions last October.

The committee was unable to make the decision because shops and houses included in the scheme meant it did not comply with the Council's Unitary Development Plan, its land-use blueprint. But the committee told Mr Prescott, Secretary of State for the Department of Transport, Local Govern-ment and the Regions, that it wanted the planning application to be approved.

The decision by the committee dramatically overturned a previous decision by Bradford area planning panel to reject two planning applications for the scheme.

Ward councillors also objected to the scheme because they said the area already had serious traffic problems.

But the club itself has made no official objections to the proposals for the flagship scheme just off the M606.

Today a spokesman for the developers Landmark Development Projects said they could not comment because they had not yet been notified by the Government of the decision to call it in for a public inquiry.

Mr Prescott has said he wants to know more about the need for large-scale shopping provision at the golf club in relation to shopping provision in Bradford and the rest of the district. He also wants information about the impact of the development on the vitality and viability of the district. In addition, he is considering whether it would be premature to grant planning permission before the completion of the public inquiry into the revised Unitary Development Plan.

The site is earmarked for employment use in the revised blueprint which will be used as a yardstick for planning applications for the next 15 years.

Chairman of Bradford Chamber of Commerce John Pennington said he was not surprised that a public inquiry hasbeen called. He said: "I think we should be developing our brown-field sites first and there should be financial incentives for this, or penalties for using green fields.''

Jeff Frankel, of Bradford Retail Action Group, said the DIY store did not compete with the city centre and the decision to have a public inquiry was "totally inconsistent".

lThe developers are already investing tens of millions of pounds in Bradford and are currently developing the historic Treadwell's Mill in Little Germany into flats.

They have done major redevelopments in the city centre, turning offices into apartments, and are involved in a number of business developments.