you go to the best European cities, and the biggest draw isn't shops. Now BFD is never going to be a European city of choice, but its not too much to ask to make it a place where local people like to spend time. Come on councillers, put a bit of gray matter behind it, do some research (not the type where you ask representative sample - they'll just ask for a faster horse).

Look who's in charge of the LGA... wonder if she's referring to anywhere in particular?

rlLinkrl

Who better to head such an association than someone from one of the best local authorities there is?

Don't be silly. I've never known it be anything other than the council newsletter. The thread on generic Bulls stories applies to every aspect of the T&A's business, it's not just Bulls access they'll bend over to get.

Eaton & decisive action in the same sentence
I walked from Forster Square station to the FC on Tuseday at 6.30pm. I passed one person on the whole mile walk. I counted less than 10 people looking all round the city centre. Not one cafe did I notice was open, one empty 'curry' house (I use the term loosely - it was the former Commonwealth) & no pubs. Apart from Pictureville I can't think of a reson to visit the centre of Bradford.

This is SO depressing.

I left Bradford in 1980 to get work.

Since that time I've seen from a distance Bradford's decline and Leeds rise as the dominant city in the region.

For the past 12 years I've lived near Liverpool. It's renaissance culminating in the "Capital of Culture" year last year has been incredible and something that Bradford's Council should note.

The "Liverpool One" retail development could so easily have been a similar hole in the ground but as it is it has been an outstanding success - attracting many visitors/shoppers back to Liverpool city centre... what did Liverpool do right and Bradford do SO wrong??

The city has been such a mess for so long that most people have found viable alternatives to Bradford, and even when/if the new shopping centre is built I can't see those people coming back to the city centre.

I live in Thackley and its actually not that much more difficult to get to Leeds City Centre than it is to get to Bradford City Centre. I can be in Leeds in less than 15 mins (train), less than 30mins (bus) and less than 20mins (car)... thats pretty comparabale with the time to get to Bradford with the added advantage of actually not having to go to Bradford!! Hence I chose to work/socialise/shop in Leeds.

You get the clear impression that for decades, the Council has simply not employed people who are up to the job of moving a City into the 21c. The Odsal debacles are just one example, if a prominent one, of that.

Sure we have a recession now, but is there anywhere else in the world where the local authority would get away with flattening half the city centre and then leaving it like that for a decade, which it looks like being?

That they have pretty much got away with it probably illustrates that most of the ground-down residents don't actually give a fsck any more and prefer to simply shake their heads with a wry grin, as I do.

rlI'm amazed they managed to get 2 starsrl.

The very final death knell for Bradford was once the powers that be decided Bradford was no longer a city in its own right for regeneration and funding purposes and is in fact part of "Leeds City Region".

Groups like Yorkshire Forward have little interest in improving things in Bradford, their track record shows this, i.e. we can't have the Odeon building being used for something useful like a mid-range concert venue - that scuppers plans for a similar one down the road in Leeds, so we'll (plan) another generic office block instead.

I'm busy spending Yorkshire Forward's millions like there's no tomorrow in Leeds right now. We couldn't get a bean in Bradford.

The little matter of the funding freed up (and other interest) by its being designated European Capital of Culture had more than a bit to do with that.

Maybe those Bradfordians on here who derided their Council's bid for that status as a waste of money or a joke may care to reflect on that? The whole point of the Bradford bid was precisely to get hands on more funding.

Leeds' rise and eclipsing of the rest of West Yorkshire started with it being designated a Development Area in the 1980s. The current scandal of treating the rest of West Yorkshire as mere outlying areas of Leeds has merely been yet more nails in the coffin.

Interesting thread: www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=246487

Interesting thread: www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=246487