A snapshot Telegraph & Argus telephone poll into the long-delayed Superdome scheme showed only one in 12 people thought the Council should continue to support it.

Our voteline received 180 calls from people who said the Council should withdraw its support.

But 15 readers praised the proposed £200-million scheme and said the Council should carry on backing it.

The grandiose project ran into fresh controversy last week when the Telegraph & Argus reported that the start date was expected to be put back until summer.

Superdome has been planned since 1993, with one start date after another abandoned.

Contractors had been expected to be at Odsal Stadium next month.

But today's corporate executive sub-committee will be told by Director of Regeneration and Strategic Support David Kennedy that the developer's need to appoint another agent bank will delay the start date until Summer. The sub-committee will be told the same method of funding will be used and the complex will still take two years to complete.

National Superdome boss John Garside says bodies including banks are vying to fund the massive scheme and the best will be chosen by the new agent bank.

Today Bradford Bulls chairman Chris Caisley, who says his top club's Super League status is in jeopardy because of the delays said he was not surprised by the result of the snapshot.

He said he hoped the Council would take note of the balance of opinion.

"Bulls supporters should be aware they can come along to today's meeting at City Hall."

Mr Garside said of the snapshot poll: "I am disappointed that the scheme has not been presented in the detail and the content we put forward."

He said they had been asked to vote about something they were not fully aware of.

He said he understood the supporters who felt Bradford Bulls could have had a new stadium by now, but Superdome was far more than a stadium

Council leader Councillor John Ryan, who will also chair today's meeting, said they were expected to accept the report of the officers.

But he said: "I remain concerned about the delays attached to Superdome. Superdome needs to find a way of reassuring the public that it will go ahead. I will be taking a particularly close interest in it."

The leader of the Council's Tory group, Councillor Margaret Eaton, said the situation was "unbelievably ridiculous".

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Council's Liberal Democrat group, said it was a wonderful and exciting scheme but the timetable for starting work appeared to be elastic.

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