A group of German youths and a best-selling author were the first to take a free audio tour of Bradford city centre.

The tour, which can be downloaded on to mp3 players, covers a complete circuit of the city centre and takes in sites such as the sculptured heads at the Wool Exchange and the statue of Richard Oastler. It is the result of a year’s work by Daniel Carroll, a youth development worker at radio station BCB, who said: “The whole project is about getting people to look up Bradford.

“I want people to look up to the tops of the historical buildings we have to see the architecture.

“I have lived here all my life and for most of that time I had my head down as I walked about and I missed all the beautiful buildings in the city. The tour is free, but if people wish to use our mp3 players, which were funded by Bradford Youth Grant-makers, then they can borrow them from BCB for a deposit of £10.”

Bradford University lecturer Dr Robert Lomas, author of The Hiram Key, a book about Masonic rituals which inspired Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, was a guest on the tour. He said: “I was more than impressed with what I saw.”

German exchange group member, Felix Ahn said: “I think the tour will be even better for people who live in the city as they will find new things about where they live.’’ The group who took part in the tour were invited to Bradford after joining forces with the team from Yorkshire as part of the EinMission Possible project, aimed at getting young people involved in politics.

The Bradford team have already visited Tübingen in Germany. Full details of the political project are at www.einmissionpossible.eu.