A regeneration chief has called for a countryside master plan for the district.

David Scougall, an executive member of the Urban Regeneration Association, said that parish councils and rural organisations should join forces with Bradford Council to prepare an overall strategy.

He spoke out as Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, Bradford Council's executive member for the environment, organised a countryside conference for next week.

Councillor Hawkesworth said Britain must recognise that Bradford was not just a trouble-torn inner city.

She said she wanted visitors and residents to take advantage of its acres of beautiful countryside and its heritage.

The conference will be held next Thursday, at the Bankfield Hotel, Bingley.

The event, which will run from 9.30am to 4pm, is for anyone interested in the well-being of the countryside.

It follows a disastrous year for farmers hit by the foot and mouth disease and other rural businesses which suffered spin-off effects.

Cllr Hawkesworth said the aim was to bring people together to discuss their needs and the way ahead.

She said: "The outside world does not realise that 60 per cent of Bradford is countryside.

"The district loses out on rural grants because it is perceived as a city.

"We want people in the rural areas to realise that we are working forward as far as they are concerned and we want to look at what is needed, including services. The conference is the start of all this."

She welcomed Mr Scougall's comments, but said large parts of Bradford's Unitary Development Plan -- a blueprint for land use for the next 15 years -- focused on the countryside.

"There are already strategies in place but this conference is about the people who live, work in and use the countryside," she said.

The conference is being supported by the Countryside Agency and Yorkshire Forward.