The planned £500 million regeneration scheme for the centre section of Bradford’s Canal Road corridor is to be welcomed, particularly as it allows the Council’s vision for the reopening of the canal and development along its length to be retained intact.

The last thing the city needs, if the whole project is to be realised in a way that fulfills its vast potential, is for pockets of land to be redeveloped in a piecemeal fashion.

But the fact that Bradford Council is planning to take a 19 per cent equity stake in the partnership set up to drive this regeneration is likely to raise a few eyebrows.

It isn’t that the Council is wrong to go into the development business: it is generally far better for all of us that public bodies are in a position to influence regeneration by other than simple planning means, which can be subject to the vagaries of planning inspectors and unwelcome Government intervention. If the Council had been equity partners in the Broadway scheme, rather than merely facilitators, the present hiatus may – and only “may” – have been avoided.

No, the concern will be about the size of the stake which is, presumably, being bought by the transfer of public-owned land into the control of the so-called Joint Venture Partnership.

We don’t yet know the full details of how the deal is structured but, planning controls apart, any business that could rally up to 81 per cent of the board in favour of its proposals would consider itself to hold a strong hand. So whether this apparently uneven partnership will be the best for Bradford remains to be seen.