Leisure giant Bass will decide which rival developer should get Bradford's only Holiday Inn as a hotel battle hots up in the city.

The developer of the £25 million Vicar Lane leisure centre has lost one of its main tenants with the collapse of hotel group Premier Hotels.

It is fighting a rival developer which wants to build historic Little Germany's first hotel.

And both companies want a Holiday Inn for the city - but only one will be built.

Now Bass, which owns the Holiday Inn group, will have to choose where the hotel will go.

Vicar Lane developer J J Gallagher said today it had agreed terms with a firm called Stannifer which is trying to win the Holiday Inn franchise from Bass.

But Landmark Development Projects Limited, which wants to build a £4.3 million hotel in Leeds Road to serve Little Germany, has already agreed terms with a rival franchise bidder, BDL.

Landmark has received a £1.3million grant from York-shire Forward for its £4.5million hotel development, which is expected to draw tourists to the historic former wool merchants' quarter.

But Gallagher believes it is ahead in the race because the Vicar Lane leisure complex - and its hotel - is expected to be built by the end of the year.

Managing director Paul Cross said: "The decision will be up to Bass, but we would be able to go ahead a lot faster.

"There will only be one franchise and one Holiday Inn in Bradford. It will be a question of who gets it."

He said a factor could be that Bass also owns the Hollywood Bowl which has already signed up for Vicar Lane and is expected to be operating early next year.

The massive Vicar Lane complex will also have a Cine-UK multi-screen cinema.

Landmark director Kenneth Morton said the firm it was dealing with, BDL, had submitted a bid to Bass for the Holiday Inn franchise a long time ago.

He said his firm is now pressing Bradford Council to release land it owned on the site to allow the project to go ahead

Mr Morton said the bid could be in jeopardy because the authority is dragging its heels.