A bid to get historic Saltaire put on the same cultural footing as Stonehenge is to be publicly launched next month.

Meanwhile consultants have been asked to prepare a report which it is hoped will help the village gain World Heritage Site status.

In April, Culture Secretary Chris Smith named Saltaire as one of 25 UK sites to be nominated for the accolade.

Then in August members of Bradford Council's Shipley planning committee agreed that a detailed report should be drawn up for submission to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

On Tuesday members of the Shipley Constituency Area Panel will be asked to continue backing the bid, which is also being supported by Shipley MP Chris Leslie and the multi-agency Saltaire Project Team.

A report to the meeting says preparing and implementing the bid will cost "in excess of £100,000'' over the next three years.

Project co-ordinator and council heritage manager Steve Bateman said it was hoped to submit the report stating Saltaire's case to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport early next year.

A decision on whether to include the village in the Government's formal submissions for World Heritage Sites is set to be made by early July 2000 with a decision from UNESCO likely to be announced from December 2001.

Mr Bateman said the consultants were also looking at whether the bids for Saltaire and two other industrial sites - New Lanark and the Derwent Valley - could compliment and support each other.

Following the bid's public launch a leaflet setting out the proposals will be distributed to local people and a series of public meetings staged to gauage views on the move for World Heritage status.

Councillor John Carroll (Con, Shipley West) said: "It is desirable that World Heritage status is given and I agree you can't staple a couple of bits of paper together for a bid like this.

"But I would like to see a breakdown of how it's been costed and will be asking exactly how much in excess of £100,000 it will be and where the money will be coming from - £100,000 would put a decent heating system into every almshouse in Saltaire.''

Mr Bateman said the ''in excess of £100,000'' was how much it was estimated the bid submission and implementation of a management plan was likely to cost, adding that it was hoped up to half of it would come from English Heritage.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.