There is much to applaud in Bradford Council’s new action plan for the city centre which is unveiled in the Telegraph & Argus today.

Encouraging nightlife while making the streets safer, improving business, cultural and educational opportunities, and supporting city centre retailers are all extremely laudable aims that should have a dramatic and positive impact.

But perhaps the most significant aspect of the blueprint is the move to encourage city centre living by reclaiming dozens of brownfield sites for thousands of new homes.

And it is to the credit of Councillor Val Slater, the Council’s executive member for housing, planning and transport, that she recognises the role played by T&A readers in identifying suitable areas.

The ongoing Save Our Green Spaces campaign run by this paper has long fought for using the huge expanses of derelict urban sites, such as mills, factories, pubs and schools, that blight the city for new development ahead of the greenfield sites which seem to be too often the default selection of developers.

The 3,500 new homes earmarked for the city as part of this development plan is very much a step in the right direction.

However, the Council still has a stated target of 45,000 new homes over the next 15 years, so many more sites need to be found.

And it is our belief that there are likely to be substantially more potential brownfield opportunities than the figure the Council has quoted for the city.

This is though very much a step in the right direction, and Councillor Slater and her colleagues deserve full praise for paying attention to the opinions voiced by local people.