We are where we are, & I have noted Bradford's continual demise since I moved there in '92. Not that I am entirely to blame. I am interested in what critics would do to reverse the trend, especially given the financial situation we are in. I don't have time at the moment to pen all my thoughts, but am not generally in favour of big gimmicks, which I fear the urban pond is, though I recognise the improvements around the city hall.

I blame the flight by people out of the city to places with Leeds postcodes...

Very true.

You can add in other things, like the centralising of the railways, which made Leeds the hub and turned Bradford into a branchline; the motorway network, which again aims for Leeds, there isn't even a mention of Bradford on the signs until you get to Wakefield. Our branch, the M62, wasn't completed until many years after Leeds had the M1 heading to its heart, and equally importantly well after many national and international companies had already chosen Leeds as their 'Northern head office'.

There are many things we can blame Bfd council for, but they in turn have been buffeted by things beyond their control, like the, previously mentioned, Thatcher government's decision to give that development area status to Leeds. This was hardly a carefully thought through measure in any sense - Leeds certainly wasn't in a worse position than Bradford, was it? The government, stung by accusations that it was letting the North rot, decided to throw money in a few, limited, directions but the scattergun missed Bradford.

I think, Adey, you once pointed out Bradford's (maybe) unique ability to vote in councils from the opposite persuasion to the prevailing government, and it may well be this which is the biggest contributor to the city's position, rather than any particular shortcomings, of the council, both now and previously. That said, they haven't helped over much either, like the supine acceptance of the latest development area AGAIN going to Leeds.

Amazing what you can do with Photoshop...

There's no proof that's Saints' new ground. It might say "Sainsburys" when it's finished.

Not sure it was a scattergun, mind - the Tories had Leeds in their sights for both parliamentary and local election seats in those days. So they reckoned that by providing all this central government largesse, bypassing the local authority, the grateful population would express their thanks through the ballot box.







Which of course they did. Except they voted instead for the party that they THOUGHT had brought all the good things to Leeds! The Leeds council played a blinder, and continues to do so. Our muppetry of fekkwitted donkeys, by comparison...

Unfortunatley I still pay my charitable donations.

It also doesn't help when our esteemed council leader also happens to have a nice little sideline on the board of the reprehensible "Leeds City Region" project.

I see the latest wheeze dreamed up by these people is a £1billion transport fund taking money out of the budgets of all the West Yorkshire councils - no doubt so we can all pay for our beloved neighbours tram network, which they desperately need because Manchester has one.

Leeds is Europe's largest city without a tram type network. I don't fully know how transport is funded locally but do know that the government decided all authorities had to bid for funding to the catchy titled local sustainable (no, really) transport fund. We contributed to it in Leeds. A lot of groups pooled their bids together. It was unsuccessful. So transport funding & planning in one of the largest metropolis in Europe is down to a lottery, with the uncertainty & huge cost in money & effort that entails.

Bradford must be the largest city in the UK without mainline railway station; around 300K population and on a branch line, you really couldn't make it up.

I bet Leeds will get its trams before we are reinstated onto the main line. I can't imagine where their aping of Manchester will end though; Manc has trams so Leeds wants trams, Manc has an arena, so Leeds wants an arena, anything else they feel 'deprived' of, I wonder?