Bradford could become home to its own CSI-style' elite crime team to investigate unexpected or suspicious deaths across West Yorkshire.

The unit would bring the best pathologists and scenes-of-crime investigators together in one laboratory complex.

It would result in a centre of regional excellence and, according to one of those behind the plans, could be similar to the kind of specialist team shown on the hit US TV show, CSI, shown on Five.

There are two public mortuaries in West Yorkshire one in Bradford and the other in Wakefield with back-up facilities in hospitals across the region.

Together they provide services to the region's two coroners who investigate sudden, unexpected, unnatural, violent or suspicious deaths.

Bradford Council, which operates the district's mortuary in Wilton Street, has spent £35,000 investigating the possibility of creating a new £4 million complex to handle cases from the whole of West Yorkshire.

The expanded laboratory would be large enough to remove the burden from the region's hospitals and even provide a home for experts looking at other evidence such as scenes-of-crime experts.

Salman Mather, Bradford Council's head of democratic services, said that if the Council and the Home Office backed the project, "CSI: Bradford" could be in place within two years.

He said: "It would enable a set of forensic facilities to be provided in a single site such as X-ray equipment, which is becoming increasingly important.

"What the Government is trying to do is develop a regional centre of excellence which would improve the standards of professional forensic pathology in the area.

"In recent years the Home Office has been working with coroners trying to improve forensic pathology, used to determine cause of death."

Grant funding would be available from the Home Office to help pay for the centre, but the final decision on whether to bid or not will be made by Bradford Council members later this year.

Further evidence is expected to be put before members of Bradford Council and the other West Yorkshire authorities within the next few months.

e-mail: jason.teasdale@bradford.newsquest.co.uk