Come on big lad, put forward a counter argument and tell us how / if city centres can be re-invigorated and cut out the schoolyard stuff.



A man without an opinion is just a sheep SUBMISSION:

The town planners have to take some responsibility too.

They keep on building shiny new shopping centres, which are in direct competition to the existing shops/stores.

All this does is move the shoppers around and with so many doing an ever increasing amount of shopping on line, the city centres will become white elephants.

Wakefield is a classic example of this very trait.

30(ish) years ago, we had the all singing / all dancing Ridings centre, which was a success and pulled some bigger names into the city.

However, opening up Trinity walk, which although very nice, has killed off the other half of the city centre.

Pre covid, there were already as many shops closed and boarder up, as there were occupied units.



If fashion/habits change and peole stop feeling the need to pay £3-4 for a cup of coffee to carry around and having their hair/nails done, there will be nothing left - it's depressing.

What should they have put in it's place,

what about a new rugby ground for Wakefield Trinity.

THey should have re developed (in stages) The Ridings.

Keep the city centre tight and accessible, rather than have a shiny new "mall" but, the cost was killing off the Cathedral side of town, which is an utter embarrassment.

The once vibrant part of the City, is now a ghost town, half boarded up and the rest of that side desperate for some life.

As for a new Trinity ground, progress was again thwarted but, we keep waiting and hoping.

Hull is the same,built Princes Quay, which killed Whitefriagate and Prospect Centre, built St Stephens, which killed Princes Quay.Hammonds now being converted into flats, BHS remains empty and Debenhams will be gone by the end of the year. M&S have no city centre prescence, but it's all going to be OK, they want to build a new Ice Arena and more flats...!

You still haven't mentioned in your capacity as a town planner what you would have planned for the land allotted to the trinity walk scheme, as for building a new ground for trinity, that was pure sarcasm btw.

Not sure what would have been the best thing for the land that Trinity Walk now occupies but, town planning in Wakefield has been awful.

The debacle over the old indoor and outdoor market, which were basic but, functional, replaced by a failed "indoor market" and with market stalls now lining the old precinct - once the pride of the city centre but, now, an eyesore.

If I'm honest, it's hard to remember what occupied the land where Trinity Walk now stands.

Some of it was the outside market but, I cant picture the rest.



The one certainty is that the City centre is badly lacking any cohesion and the ridings, once the jewel in the crown, is now a glorified jumble sale (Trinity shop of course, excluded

).



We could go on and discuss the old Clayton hospital site.



The hospital closed in 2012 and has fallen further and further into disrepair.

I understand that at some point it will be developed jointly as part of WGHS and QEGS but, for almost 10 years, it's been an absolute mess.



On the plus side, the area around Wakefield College and the new History Centre are coming on nicely, so, it's not all bad.

The brunswick hotel, the indoor market and outdoor market at the back of it levelled with the new market rebuilt where it is now, the fish market, Joe Shaws waltzer and the road that ran round it onto the top of Jacobs Well lane, all lovingly destroyed by the Labour council, so like it or lump it, it would seem that it's all down to the controlling labour party, just as an aside i wonder what the thoughts of tovaritch Pimpernel and his batman wilzay are on the subject

I am a proud socialist and can keep my head high, I will leave it to the likes of you who are Johnson apologist for all his failures to explain to the families of those that died unnecessarily, and those children who had their futures thrown into doubt. We will be having more enquires to fill a fridge and they haven’t gone a full year.

I would rather have a Labour council than a Conservative one that have been known to run things so well that they have to declare bankruptcy, how did that go for the services in their areas.

You can always rely on the tories for the “Grandest of Sh1tshows”

If that's a dig at me tovarisch pimpernel I am sticking up for your local labour council against another card carrying mate of yours that does not seem to agree with you vis a vie your all singing and dancing labour council, the very same one who you kept slagging off when they wouldn't build a new ground for the club, didn't hear much tub thumping for them then, hate to keep bringing this up though, what was your thoughts on the Tories when they let you buy your council house on Eastmoor?

The only card that I carry is my bank card, unless it's your birthday





I note that UK debt has now passed £2 trillion.

It does beg the question whether the butchering of local services and 10+ years of austerity were actually neccessary.

On the basis that apparently we're not going back to Austerity to clear down, the new,, much larger debt. maybe there could and should have been a different strategy ?