The plan to call in outside consultants to draw up a blueprint for the city centre is a welcome one. Bradford could well use some impartial, expert advice on the shape it ought to adopt for the future, particularly at this time when various schemes are in the offing.

It would be a mistake if future development was allowed to be driven purely by commercial interests and individual schemes went ahead without any regard to the aesthetics of the city centre as a whole, leading to a hotch-potch of different styles.

The big pity is that the proposal for the blueprint, with its potential to create a vision of a future Bradford to inspire citizens and investors alike, comes after a decision has been taken to allow a wholly unsuitable development on the site of Provincial House.

As there now seems to be no way of overturning that decision, the development on that prime site will have an impact on everything else that happens around it. It will either influence the design of other new buildings to fit in with it (which would be a planning catastrophe) or it will stick out like a sore thumb.

The other schemes in the pipeline for Bradford must not be allowed to "go it alone" in this way. It is important that as much as possible of the reborn city centre is influenced by the ideas which come out of this consultation and that the public as well as the professionals have a major say in decisions which will ultimately be taken by politicians - who owe it to them to reflect their wishes.