A project manager being brought in to oversee a flagship £1 million improvement scheme will only escalate costs, say traders.

And they fear local craftsmen will lose out on doing the work to spruce up the fronts of business properties and shops on the Leeds Road approach to Bradford city centre.

But regeneration organisation Regen 2000, which wants to bring in the project manager to control the scheme, says it is vital to getting the job done properly, and would be good value for the use of public money.

Owners of businesses in the area, however, want to be given the chance to appoint their own contractors, using local contractors.

The businesses will be given grants to carry out improvements, but many fear a special manager will appoint his own sub-contractors to do the work.

Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 are being offered by Regen 2000 to cover half of the work and they hope improvements will be carried out to 105 properties.

But some local companies which say they could do the work claim involvement of a "middle man" would mean the cost of the scheme escalating, with increased bureaucracy.

Neil Medley, of Bradford-based M Solutions, a business which helps Yorkshire companies, fears local tradespeople would lose out in the scheme.

Mr Medley claimed the extra costs could also mean people receiving the grants paying more than they needed to.

He said: "For example you may be able to get a local business to do the job for around £5,000.

"But the system might mean the job costing maybe £12,000 for the same job

"A 50 per cent grant would still mean the shopkeeper having to pay £1,000 more."

Company director Johnnie Smith, of Treble M print in Garnett Street, said his company, which employs 15 people, should have reaped huge benefits since the regeneration of the whole Barkerend area began four years ago.

He said: "In fact we have had nothing but rice and beans - in other words nothing."

Mr Smith said his company could do the shop signs in the Leeds Road scheme and needed work.

"We are not asking for an open cheque book. We have been here for 12 years and simply want these contracts to go to local people."

But Regen 2000 board member Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said: "Urban programmes are littered with schemes which people did themselves and we are now having to replace them with public money.

"We are not in the business of giving out cheques, we are securing long-term improvements.

"We have had project managers for all other schemes and it is the way we get maximum benefit for the city."

A spokesman for Regen 2000 said public money was going into Leeds Road for the third time in 15 years and in the past many unqualified contractors had been used, providing cheap and poor finishes.

She said the appointment of a project manager would guarantee quality standards.

She added they were creating a consortium of individual contractors in the building trades aimed at ensuring opportunities went to local companies.

But she said it had taken time to produce the best scheme possible and they were negotiating with Yorkshire Forward, which was responsible for the funding, to ensure good use of public money and good value for the investment.