Bradford begins 2007 with great schemes in the pipeline, several major projects under way and - as far as many local people are concerned - a worrying question mark hovering over the fenced-off area where the new Broadway development is planned to take shape.

In some ways 2006 has been an encouraging year. Real progress can be seen in the cranes towering above apartment projects on the edge of Little Germany - at Eastbrook Hall and the Gate Haus at the junction of Leeds Road and the Shipley-Airedale road. The refurbishment of Lister's Mill is forging ahead. Mills in Shipley are being transformed into new homes. And what's more, there appears to be no shortage of people eager to buy into these new developments.

Last year saw the refinement of Will Alsop's provocative Masterplan into feasible schemes, with the Channel Urban Village particularly catching the public's imagination. The next year hopefully will see these schemes pass through the planning stage and make physical progress.

And so to the question mark over Broadway. This project is the key to Bradford's regeneration. It must happen if this city is to become the vibrant place it has the potential to be, and we have been promised that this year work on it will begin.

Those who doubt that should perhaps look back to the hope expressed in this column as the New Year of 2001 dawned that the hole in the ground where the old Rawson Market used to sit would soon be occupied. The impressive new Rawson Quarter now stands on that long-empty site. Many people thought that it, too, would never happen. Eventually, it did.