Those who sometimes feel a little pessimistic about this district's future could give themselves a morale boost by reading our report today of the first meeting of Bradford & Keighley Youth Parliament.

If any town, city or district is to thrive it needs to engage the interest and enthusiasm of its younger generation. This was the aim when the election was held last year for a Parliament for our district. It caught the imagination of Bradford's young people, with 6,500 of them aged between 11 and 25 casting their votes for 50 candidates in the same age group.

Given the low percentage of adults who bother to vote at local and even national elections, that was an encouraging turn-out by a generation which is often regarded as alienated and apathetic. Even more heartening was the fact that 700 of them went on to attend a series of forums at which the people who are Bradford's future thrashed out the changes that they wanted to see.

The vision for the district which emerged from those meetings was made clear on Saturday. The young people want to see the problems of drug pushers and vandalism tackled. They want more facilities such as youth clubs. The words of Youth Parliament chairman Peter Cairns show that they fully realise the responsibilities they as the next generation must bear to make this a better place for them and for all of us.

And they appear to be fully aware of the main challenge that faces them - in the words of Peter Cairns, to have "many cultures and many races but just one Bradford." We wish them well.